Almost 80 per cent of executives in Ireland believe that their career prospects in the past year have either improved or stayed the same, according to recruitment consultants Merc Partners.
Those in the pharmaceutical/life sciences and technology sectors were the most positive about career prospects, while those in construction/ engineering and in retail/tourism were the most pessimistic.
More than 300 executives at managing director, company director or head of function level were interviewed by Amárach Research for Merc Partners in November 2012.
More than a third (37 per cent) said that skills shortages were hampering progress in their organisations.
Switching roles
The survey also found that the majority of respondents were open to switching roles, with 71 per cent prepared to move to another company.
Merc partner Kieran Duff said the research suggested a confidence and resilience among many senior Irish executives even in the middle of a tough recession.
“Despite the difficult economic climate,” Mr Duff added, “it is encouraging to see that senior executives are open to taking on new career challenges.”
Separately, new job vacancies for professionals increased by 6 per cent in the last quarter of 2012 when compared with 2011, according to the latest Morgan McKinley Irish Employment Monitor.
New professional jobs
There was also an increase of 2 per cent in the number of new professional jobs opportunities, up to 6,720 in December 2012 compared to 6,861 in December 2011.
Karen O’Flaherty, chief operations officer at Morgan McKinley, an Irish-owned global recruitment consultancy, said the main contributors to this figure were multinationals, shared services centres and the IT sector.
“Ireland has made a return to the bond market, our services sector is performing well due to a solid performance by Irish exports and the IDA has reported its highest net job creation in over a decade, so we can expect increased confidence in the hiring market in 2013,” Ms O’Flaherty added.
