The Labour Market Pulse Report explores insights and trends from Ireland’s labour market, in order to inform decision-makers across the business, academic and public policy sectors.
In collaboration with Microsoft and LinkedIn, IDA Ireland has today (14 October) published the twelfth edition of the Labour Market Pulse report.
The research is designed to offer insight into the trends dictating the Irish labour market and help professionals across business, academics and public policy to make stronger, informed decisions.
What was discovered is that Ireland is in a position of strength when it comes to the AI transition, as the country ranks fourth in the world for AI engineering talent concentration, behind only Israel, Singapore and Luxembourg and ahead of Germany, France and the UK.
IDA Ireland’s report also found that Ireland ranks fourth globally for net AI talent migration and first in the IMF Skills Readiness Index, which indicates that the country is an attractive location for professionals looking to establish and further their careers.
Michael Lohan, the CEO of IDA Ireland said: “The latest Labour Market Pulse shows that Ireland enters the AI era from a position of real strength. Even as hiring has moderated internationally, employment across IDA’s client base grew in 2025.
“Digital and AI accounted for 40pc of global greenfield investment last year, and around two-thirds of the RD&I projects we supported last year involve AI. Ranking fourth in the world for AI talent sends a powerful signal to investors, and our focus now is on building on that advantage through continued investment in talent, infrastructure and adoption.”
Market resilience
Currently, Ireland’s labour market is resilient and employment is high, at 2.84m in Q2 of 2026. Comparatively, unemployment has remained at or below 5.1pc for 54 consecutive months.
The report found that Ireland also shows greater resilience than its European counterparts, as even though the September LinkedIn hiring rate for Ireland was down more than 6pc year-on-year, there was a greater decline in both the UK (11.3pc) and Germany (18.1pc).
Perhaps disappointingly however, entry-level recruitment in AI-augmented roles was shown to have declined by more than 16pc year-on-year in Q2 of 2026, compared with a 10.8pc decline across these occupations overall.
The report stated, “Within roles such as software engineering and data analysis, there are signs of a sharper pullback in junior recruitment, although the extent to which AI is driving this remains unclear.”
On a more positive note, the demand for AI skills is increasing. The number of LinkedIn job postings looking for AI engineering skills jumped by 29pc between 2019 and 2025. Among the five fastest growing AI occupations for 2026 in Ireland were AI engineering, machine learning engineering, data annotation, analytics specialisation and data analytics.
The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD welcomed the report. He said, “The Irish labour market is performing well with employment levels and rates remaining high, and unemployment low at close to 5pc.
“Ireland has moved quickly in adopting AI, with strong AI usage and diffusion across our economy. We need to stay ahead and build on this momentum to fully reap the benefits from AI, a core theme of this week’s International AI Summit as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency.’’
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