Vacancies increased by 4 percentage points to 16 per cent last month accoridng to the FÁS/ESRI employment and vacancies survey.

The increase "was driven solely by the services sector as reported vacancies decreased in each of the other three sectors that were surveyed - construction, industry and retail." Vacancies in the services sector rose significantly, with the percentage of firms indicating that they had positions to fill increasing to 23 per cent from 16 per cent in October.

Vacancies in the construction sector decreased slightly to 9 per cent. There was a further decline this month in the number of firms reporting vacancies in both the industry and retail sectors, to 16 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

There was a slight improvement in employers' future employment outlook. However, a higher proportion still expect employment levels to fall over the coming months.