There's been an increase in professional job vacancies over the past month - according to the latest figures from Morgan McKinley Ireland.

There was a 7% month to month increase in professional job vacancies nationally in April, compared to March 2017.

Meanwhile, there was a 15% reduction in the number of professionals seeking new roles between March and April.

Morgan McKinley Ireland, Director of Inward Investment, Trayc Keevans commented:

"The continuing improvement in economic circumstances is feeding into a buoyant professional services recruitment market. We are seeing a strong pipeline of interest from abroad as potential inward investment projects seek information and guidance on skills availability in Ireland.

"This is a mixture of standard FDI interest and Brexit related concern on the part of international companies. We are also seeing strong organic growth in the Irish professional jobs market where companies have a positive outlook and are resourcing their requirements accordingly," Ms Keevans said.

Growth

Professional services firms and the financial services sector have the highest levels of recruitment.

"As companies continue with Brexit contingency planning and compliance planning for the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into effect next year, professional services firms are expanding their teams to meet this need. In the financial services sector we are seeing intense hiring activity across all funds roles with continuing growth in this sector," Ms Keevans added.

This data comes as Ireland's unemployment rate has fallen to 6.2%.

The research covers jobs in areas including, banking and financial services, commerce, law, HR, and customer services.