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Workforce Optimism Increases

Monday, October 15 12:44:53

Irish workers are increasingly upbeat about the performance of the businesses they work for with 40pc saying that prospects are improving - an increase from 37pc six months ago, according to research by Berkley Recruitment Group, a leading global staffing firm.

Berkley's research, amongst 2,400 workers across the world, shows that Irish staff are also more optimistic than many of their counterparts across Europe. Only 27pc of staff in Germany, 35pc in Spain, 36pc in France, 37pc in the UK and 38pc in Italy are confident that prospects are improving for the business they work for.

Fergal Brosnan, Managing Director at Berkley, comments: "These employees see how their businesses are doing. They know if orders are coming in, if everyone is being asked to work longer hours, if the phones are ringing, so it is great to see optimism in Ireland increasing.

"But although it is great to see the Irish workforce now more optimistic than our British neighbours, sentiment is fragile. Politicians and other policy makers need to be careful of that."

The research also showed that almost half (48pc) of Irish employees would consider emigrating to change jobs.

"That almost half of Irish employees surveyed would consider emigrating to change jobs is a pretty shocking statistic," said Brosnan.

"The only gloss you can put on that is the figures are even higher in other EU countries - in Spain and Italy over 85pc of respondents would emigrate for a career move. Whilst all workforces are more mobile than ever, it does say something about the limited choices that many employees feel they are faced with."

Fears over job security, however, have eased during 2012, and staff in Ireland are also more enthusiastic about their chances of promotion than their European counterparts. Whilst only 23pc rated their chances of promotion as better than this time last year, the figure was higher than Germany (20pc), the UK (18pc) and France (3pc).

"It is pleasing to see that staff are more at ease in their jobs and that confidence is higher than at the start of 2012. Irish workers are amongst the most bullish about their promotion opportunities. It's good news that they are now focusing again on medium-term career goals," said Brosnan.