A topical question these days is where should the country and the economy should be focusing in retraining the workforce, particularly in light of the huge recent increase in unemployment.  

FAS’ Planning and Research Department has analysed a number of sources of data and these lead to the conclusions presented in this article. Source Job Opportunites in the Down Turn - Roger Fox, Planning & Research June 2009. The report in full is very comprehensive and this article contains the main points of the full report.

The Irish economy is in the middle of a major down-turn with unemployment having doubled to 11% in the last year, employment falling and redundancies at record levels. There may not be enough jobs for everyone in the next few years and unemployment will rise further. However, there will still be some jobs, and it is useful to be able to identify areas with better prospects both in the short and medium-term.

FAS’ Planning and Research Department has analysed a number of sources of data and these lead to the conclusions presented in this report. 

• Clerical (office work, accounts)
• Caring (health care, child care, elder care)
• Catering (Chefs, waiters, fast food)
• Hairdressing

Security (shops, office, factories)

Growth Areas because of the Down-Turn

As people cut-back on spending, some products and services are likely to experience increased demand. Likely areas of growth are:

• Repairs and Maintenance (Clothing & Footwear, Electrical Goods, Home DIY, Motor Vehicles)
• Green Energy (e.g. Solar Panels, Heat-Pump Installer, Bio-mass Boiler Installer, Insulator, Smart Building systems)  
• Vegetable/Fruit Gardening
• Fast-food

Start Your Own Business

The lack of jobs is likely to lead to an increased number of persons becoming selfemployed. This trend is likely to arise across a range of occupations from construction, repairs and maintenance, personal services, office and business services. To support this development, Start Your Own Business training may be a relevant option for many redundant workers who have gained experience working in (now) down-sized areas including construction professionals, managers and craftspersons.

Skills and Labour Shortages

At present, there are few areas of skills or labour shortages. Any shortages are now confined to areas for persons with third-level qualifications and specific expertise and work experience. Thus, there is not a shortage of recent graduates, but rather persons with suitable experience. The main occupations identified as being in short supply are:

• Health(e.g. Doctors and Nurses)
• Software Engineers (with experience in networks and specific software applications (e.g. Java).
• Accountants (with expertise in regulation, compliance and risk)
• Actuaries
• Marketing Managers (with considerable experience)
• Technical Sales Representatives with knowledge of particular products/services
• Scientists (highly qualified and experienced professionals and technicians)
• IT specialists with fluent foreign language skills
• Engineers (experienced design and process engineers for manufacturing subsectors)

Longer-Term Demands

While prospects for the world economy are very uncertain at present, if we assume that the world and Ireland will eventually return to the previous economic growth path then there is a widespread consensus on the main sectors and occupations that will grow in the future. The fastest growth areas will be in occupations requiring third level qualifications (professional and associate professional jobs) and in services such as caring and sales.

Relatively high growth is expected for engineering, computing, scientific, medical, legal and financial professionals. In relation to services, the fastest growth areas are likely to be for care workers (for childcare and elder care).

It is important to emphasise that while many fast-growing jobs will require third-level qualifications, the National Skills Strategy for Ireland still expects that half of the workforce in 2020 will have below third-level qualifications.

Another more general trend is that towards occupations requiring combined skills from a number of disciplines, as well as ones requiring a strong element of soft and generic skills.

USA Projections

Projections from the USA and other countries suggest broadly similar patterns to Ireland. In terms of the number of jobs created, large occupations dominate such as nurses, retail sales, clerical, caring and catering. Teachers, IT workers and truck drivers are also forecast to create many additional jobs. Some of these same jobs are among the fastest growing in percentage terms – particularly in software, health and caring. It may also be interesting to note some more unusual growth occupations in the US including vets and gambling workers as well as social-type workers/counsellors for substance abuse, mental health and family issues.

Conclusions

The analysis presented in this report is intended to provide guidance in terms of job opportunities during the down-turn. It is important to emphasise that in all job areas in the short-term there will be an over-supply of potential recruits, so that not all suitable persons will be able to find a job in their chosen occupation. Equally, however, there is unlikely to be any occupation for which no recruitment will take place. Thus, there will always be some job openings in any chosen occupation, so that for someone committed to a particular occupation then support towards achieving that goal should not be excluded. However, the information in this report may be helpful in advising persons who do not have a clear direction, and who may be helped by better understanding the prospects for different occupations.