New life came into the market in August

After seven months of negative growth, August changed direction and delivered an 18% increase in job openings. The strongest growth came in the Food and Beverage and Accommodation sectors which jumped 35% where finding staff just got significantly harder. F&B and Accommodation always make up the largest share of job roles available but this month the increase saw it climb from 50% of all the job openings to 57%.

The tourism sector conversely continues to see a slow down in job openings which started at the beginning of the year and now tourism is only accounting for 5% of the jobs available in the market. Construction roles have also become noticeably smaller, which may be as a result of the decline nationally in construction activity and more candidates being available from other markets.

While the month of August was up 18%, the calendar year is trailing 4% after steep declines, especially in the first quarter. The last two months have slowed and now showing growth and with new hotels coming on stream its likely to be a busy run-up to Christmas.