DAVY VIEW

Yesterday’s (May 24th) Labour Force Survey (LFS) showing employment up another 1.9% in Q1 2023 to 2.61m indicates that Ireland’s exceptional pace of job creation is showing little sign of slowing down. Remarkably, employment is now 12% above pre-pandemic levels. Further, April’s Services PMI indicated that job creation had accelerated to its fastest pace in six months. Hence, we will soon have to revise up heavily our forecast that jobs growth in the Irish economy would slow to 1% in calendar year 2023.