The outlook for the employment market in 2005 is extremely positive, a jobs index published yesterday indicates.

The latest figures from the Bank of Ireland Business Banking's Job Index records the highest number of recruitment advertisements placed in the national daily and Sunday newspapers since the index began in March 2002.

The publication of the latest figures was accompanied by a call for an improved labour immigration policy.

In total, 20,491 recruitment advertisements were recorded in January, a 5 per cent increase over the previous high of January 2004. The findings of the index are also consistent with figures announced last week by the Central Bank, which indicated that the unemployment rate now stands at 4.2 per cent.

"The job index is a good barometer for Irish business sentiment and based on the findings of the January index we can expect to see significant business activity in 2005," said Mr Cathal Muckian, director, Bank of Ireland Business Banking.

"The European Commission's proposed relaunch of the economic growth strategy and a refocusing on job creation means that Ireland looks set to be one of the biggest net job creators and an increasingly popular destination for migrant workers.

"Given that we have the lowest unemployment rate in the EU and the highest growth rate, with the spiralling demand for labour a cohesive labour immigration strategy is required to ensure that our growth is not curtailed by labour shortages".

The record high in recruitment advertisement is largely due to increases from the private sector, particularly the IT/tech (plus 62 per cent) and professional (plus 15 per cent) sectors.

Despite these increases there was evidence of some decline in a number of sectors, most notably in manufacturing (minus 50 per cent), which has increased only once in the last eight months and in the financial (minus 22 per cent) and leisure (minus 2 per cent) sectors. The construction sector (minus 7 per cent) continued its recent slowdown.