The way Mr Michael O'Flaherty of Noel Recruitment tells it, he and his colleagues are dealing with the some of the most technical products in the marketplace - human beings. Satisfying the complex needs of job-seekers and employers has become an increasingly innovative business. While traditional methods are still in evidence, these days you are as likely to find a job in cyberspace as in the business sections of the broadsheets.

Until relatively recently, says Mr O' Flaherty, whose company has just launched the only 24 hour jobs phone-line in the country, the sector could have been defined as "a kind of cottage industry". The success of the Marlborough Group, Mr David McKenna's high profile recruitment enterprise, transformed it into "a sexy business", he says. And the number of licensed recruitment agencies in the State is now at the 300 mark and rising.

The buoyant economy, which is attracting the return of expatriates, the presence of large multinationals, and a skills shortage, particularly in the IT area, have all contributed to this recruitment boom.

It is no surprise, therefore, that HRM recruitment in Dublin has doubled in size in the past year. Like most such companies, it now advertises services on the Internet. "It gives clients a chance to be linked to a high skills pool," says Ms Margaret Sweeney, business unit manager for HRM IT.

About half of the curriculums vitae (CVs) received by the company are sent via electronic mail. In the beginning, says Ms Sweeney, most of these emails came from people looking for jobs in the IT area. "It's cheaper than a stamp and an envelope and a lot less hassle," according to Ms Sweeney. It also aids discretion, a priority for those wanting to keep their job-seeking activities less visible to their current employer.

These job-seekers are benefiting greatly from the expansion in recruitment across the State. The emphasis has shifted significantly, according to Mr O'Flaherty.

"In the past companies were using agencies like ours as a way to intercept the flood of CVs they would invariably get in response to their newspaper advertisement," he says.

"Now they use agencies because there is a skills shortage. There has been a swing in the opposite direction".

Subsequently, the new applicants are content to wait it out in a high paying temporary or contract job until the offer of that perfect permanent post pops into their electronic mailbox.

"People are no longer changing jobs, but updating their CVs," Mr O'Flaherty says.

Another way to do just that is the Irish Jobs Page, (www.exp.ie) a site run by Software Expressions in Blackrock, Co Dublin. Around 2,000 posts in 75 different job categories are advertised on the site which receives around 30,000 "hits" or visits a month.

When the site was first established in April 1995, awareness of the medium was the biggest problem, says its marketing manager, Mr John Feeley. "At the start we had to educate businesses about the benefits of the Internet. Now anyone in the recruitment industry who is not Internet aware is missing out," he says.

Far from replacing traditional methods, he sees the Irish Jobs Page as complementary to the agencies. "We don't screen people, we don't interview them. We put recruiters in touch with the people they need to talk to," says Mr Feeley.

While acknowledging the significance of the Net, Mr James Gormley, president of the Irish Federation of Personnel Services (IFPS) - the body that represents just over a quarter of Irish recruitment agencies - is wary of overstating its importance. "Unfortunately, there is nobody gathering the kind of pure information and statistics which would give us an accurate picture of exactly the influence the Internet is having within the industry," he says.

In general, the growth in the sector has its roots in the fact that Ireland is now an international business environment. "We'll take all workers now. Whether they are black, blue, yellow or speak with a funny accent doesn't make a difference," he says.

Despite Mr Gormley's scepticism, there are figures which suggest the Internet is an increasingly important recruiting tool. A survey by Sales Placement recently showed that 42 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women registered with the agency make regular use of the Internet for job hunting.

The state's largest recruitment company, the Marlborough Group, has received close to 70,000 hits on its website since April. Mr Jason Kennedy, business unit manager of International Services, says that there are two sectors which are currently most successfully sourced on the Net.

"The first is obviously the IT sector and, alongside that, the telecommunications sector which is growing rapidly here. We have ex-pats skilled in these areas looking to source jobs at home," he says.

The other target audience is the multi-lingual foreign nationals and ex-pats who are in high demand in the expanding call-centre market place.

Innovation and investment in new technology is essential if agencies are to keep up to speed with this rapidly expanding sector, says Mr Kennedy. One such initiative within the Marlborough Group is a telemarketing system where registered job-hunters are pro-actively contacted at their homes.

Video conferencing equipment, used for interviewing overseas applicants, was also part of a £1 million investment in technology by the company. At Noel Recruitment, job seekers have been "put in the driver's seat" with a new 24-hour jobs line, according to Mr O'Flaherty.

Plans are also in place for a new, improved website, about which Mr O'Flaherty is maintaining silence. One thing is certain, in the applicant driven recruitment sector, such innovations are implemented with the job-seeker in mind.