Irish employment confidence is showing signs of recovery, according to results of the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey published this morning.
For the first quarter of 2003, the Net Employment Outlook is three per cent, a modest recovery of seven percentage points from the previous quarter's outlook.
The survey of 35,000 employers across 18 countries is conducted quarterly to measure employer's intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce.
Regionally, employment prospects are more positive in for the first quarter in 2004 than they were last quarter.
Connaught, Dublin and Ulster are all showing positive Net Employment Outlooks for the first quarter in 2004 (8, 6 and 6 per cent respectively) - all well above the national average of 3 per cent.
The national average is driven down by the Net Employment Outlooks in Leinster and Munster, however, which are both negative (minus 1 per cent for both).
Although Munster and Leinster are showing negative employment outlooks, they are up significantly on last quarter.
Year on year, however, the picture is not as positive. Leinster, Munster and Dublin are showing considerable decreases year on year (-15, -10 and -6 per cent respectively).