Ireland ranks in the top three most attractive countries in the EU for international jobseekers, according to research by job site Indeed.
The analysis found that Ireland ranks 14th in a list of all 62 countries where Indeed has job sites in terms of the proportion of searches from people living overseas. Five of the top 15, including Ireland, are English-speaking.
Ireland is the third most attractive country within the EU for international jobseekers, surpassed only by Luxembourg and Austria.
Some 11.1 per cent of searches for jobs in Ireland in June originated from outside the country.
Irish job advertisements in personal care and home health attracted the biggest share of foreign clicks in the first half of this year, at 9.2 per cent, a significant jump from a 1 per cent share in 2019.
Software development is the second most popular job category here for foreign workers, accounting for 6.4 per cent of all overseas clicks, while administrative assistance is third on 6.3 per cent.
The share of foreign clicks on jobs in cleaning and sanitation in the first half of the year reached 2.9 per cent, more than double the share in 2019, while nursing has also almost doubled to 2.6 per cent.
The majority of clicks on personal care and home health jobs in Ireland come from Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. For cleaning and sanitation, the majority come from the UK, India and Brazil.
Ireland also ranks as the sixth most popular destination for jobseekers based in Ukraine, attracting 2.6 per cent of clicks from jobseekers located there.
Pawel Adrjan, director of EMEA economic research at Indeed, said jobseekers from abroad were more likely to click on job postings in a given country when there is a significant cultural diaspora and a linguistic or geographical proximity to their home nation.
“Ireland, for example, has already taken in a high number of Ukrainian refugees and has been very welcoming to those seeking refuge from the Russian invasion. This could help to explain why Ireland is among the top 10 countries for job searches for Ukrainians who have yet to leave their home country,” he said.
Indeed’s analysis showed that while immigration to developed countries has rebounded “significantly” post-pandemic, searches for jobs in the EU remain well below other large English-speaking countries.
In the UK, Canada and Australia, searches from potential workers located abroad have surpassed their June 2019 levels by 69 per cent, 74 per cent and 141 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, searches for jobs in the EU were just 5 per cent above June 2019 levels.
