Chapter 1: What does LinkedIn research reveal about job market trends?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk. unemployment has remained near all-time record lows of between 4% and 5% in this country. Despite that, research from the professional social media site LinkedIn suggests that those already in jobs are hugging those jobs and are not sniffing around for newer opportunities.
This seems to suggest that the market is not as tight as it once was and moving around is more of a risk than it might have been more recently. Cara O'Leary is the Country Manager with LinkedIn Ireland and is on the line. Good morning, Cara.
Good morning, Joe.
Cara, tell us more about what hugging your job means.
Yeah, great phrase. So effectively, what we're seeing is we are seeing Irish workers becoming a little bit more cautious as the market becomes that bit more competitive.
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Chapter 2: What does 'hugging your job' mean in today's employment landscape?
So companies effectively are advertising slightly fewer roles and then as a result, What we're seeing is workers choosing to stay put in their current jobs rather than to compete in a tighter market.
And it looks as if working from home or hybrid working or flexible working or whatever you want to call it is not becoming any less popular for job seekers, according to your research.
Yeah, that's what we're seeing. So, I mean, great news from an Irish perspective. We continue to lead in Europe on flexible work. So almost four out of every 10 job postings that we see are hybrid. And that is the joint highest with the UK across EMEA. And then on top of that, we actually see over 8% of all jobs advertised are fully remote.
And again, like second only and only marginally to the UK.
Chapter 3: How is flexible working impacting job seekers in Ireland?
So, and we do see those roles attracting higher levels of interest. So that indicates for us their popularity. People enjoy the flexibility that that provides.
Don't tell Dennis O'Brien he's not a fan of flexible working. The American administration may have gone off the idea of tackling climate change, but we here in Ireland seem to value skills in the green or environmental space.
We do. Yeah, we're seeing that demand continue to increase. So this is no longer as niche an area as maybe it would have been in the past. And we're seeing people in the green skills space being hired well above the global average. And I would say the growth in that demand is being driven by multiple things.
Chapter 4: What are the emerging skills in demand due to AI and green jobs?
So being driven by energy demand from an AI perspective. There's a huge demand for energy there. The renewables, infrastructure investment. So these skills are absolutely in demand.
You're suggesting that the market, it may not be as tight as it once was. Do you get a sense that unemployment might start inching upwards?
I think, I mean, right now, what this signals is a cooling, I would say. So hiring is still happening, but it is happening at a slower pace. So what we are seeing a trend towards is people focused on upskilling,
Chapter 5: Is the job market in Ireland becoming less competitive?
looking at more internal mobility. And as you said, you know, this new phrase of job hugging, we are seeing people looking for stability. And I think in a time where, like, if you look around, there's a lot of uncertainty about the future. You know, people aren't sure with the introduction of AI, what does that mean?
And so instead of maybe looking externally for new jobs, they're thinking about, well, I have the stability in my current job. So what I might need to do is upskill and be ready for the jobs of the future.
It's a good point you make about AI because there is some evidence that graduates, in America at least, aren't getting jobs as quickly as they were because those entry-level roles are being taken up by AI. Have we seen any evidence of that in Ireland yet?
Yeah, I think what I would say is, and I actually had an interesting conversation with our global chief economist, Karen Kimber, about this yesterday. What we're seeing is that AI is not eliminating jobs at scale.
Chapter 6: How should workers prepare for future job market changes?
It's changing them. What we need people to focus on is reskilling for the jobs of the future. And we see that in our data also. In the 15 years to 2030, 70% of the skills required will have changed. And that's a huge amount. We're seeing jobs exist today that didn't exist, not even like...
50 years ago or even 20 years ago, we're talking kind of five and 10 years ago, some of these jobs didn't exist. So it's really about thinking to the future, what are the skills that are on the rise? How do I upskill myself in those areas and make sure that I'm future ready? And likewise, from an employer perspective, how do we ensure that our people are future ready also?
Chapter 7: What challenges is LinkedIn facing with regulators?
Yeah.
LinkedIn seems to be falling foul of the regulators of late. The Comisión de la Unión announced that it's launched an investigation over users struggling to be able to complain over illegal content. And you were fined €310 million by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. What's going on?
Look, firstly, in terms of Commerce Uniman, we are committed to keeping LinkedIn safe, trusted, professional, and we do have effective mechanisms for users to report content that may be illegal. Of course, we're going to continue to engage with the regulators, adhere to the laws and the regulations of the markets in which we operate.
And what about the €310 million fine? Have you guys paid that or are you challenging that?
Look, we believe we've been in compliance with GDPR. So while we continue to work on ensuring that our ad practices in Europe meet the IDPC's decision, we are appealing the decision and its findings in court.
Can I ask you whether you're worried about big American tech being a bit close to the White House? Now, I know you guys weren't personally in the meetings with Donald Trump, but obviously LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft and they certainly sat in. And over the last two days, the U.S.
trade representative has directly threatened European companies because of fines that might have been imposed on you guys.
Yeah, and look, I mean, what I would say to that, Joe, is, you know, we continue to stay focused on our mission and vision. So from a LinkedIn perspective, our vision is to ensure that we create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. And so, you know, we're focused on our vision, which is to keep ploughing towards that goal.
And we try not to be distracted by things that may go on around us.
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