Professional job opportunities in September were down 10 per cent compared to the same month a year earlier, according to the monthly employment monitor by recruitment consultants Morgan McKinley. Professional vacancies also fell 9 per cent last month compared to August.

There were also 11 per cent fewer professional jobseekers than in the previous year, it said, with the number falling from 8,880 to 7,943 over the 12 months. However, the number rose from 7,214 in August.

"Hiring activity in September was characterised by a degree of caution," said Morgan McKinley Ireland director of inward investment Trayc Keevans.

The complexities of Brexit may be having an impact on the ability of companies to forecast the resources they will require, Ms Keevans added.

The most active sectors nationally were the pharma, technology/ IT and professional services sectors, while the most in demand roles were quality engineers, research and development engineers, IT project managers, audit and tax professionals, risk managers and legal professionals with conveyancing experience.

Pharma overtook IT in terms of buoyancy, with the majority of these employment opportunities based outside of Dublin. The IT sector, which remains Dublin-centric, saw growth in demand for fintech specialists and cybersecurity experts.

Nordic languages were the most in demand in September, surpassing German for the first time, Morgan McKinley said. Ireland was growing its base as an outsourcing hub for Nordic customer service and technical support operations due to the excessively high cost of living in Scandinavian countries.