Less demand for workers in the retail and service sectors drove a drop in economy-wide vacancies last month.
The Fás/ESRI Employment and Vacancies Survey for June 2007 found positions left empty in the services sector fell by 2 percentage points to 17 per cent, while the retail sector reported vacancies declined to 1 per cent.
The percentage of firms reporting vacancies in the private sector also fell by one percentage point to 12 per cent.
The survey found jobs advertised in the construction sector increased by two percentage points to 8 per cent. And after remaining stable at 15 per cent for the past four months, the percentage of firms reporting vacancies in the industry sector increased by three percentage points to 18 per cent.
The survey reported the Net Employment Expectations indicator for all sectors fell by two percentage points but continued to be positive at 2 per cent, which means the percentage of employers expecting a rise in employment levels in their firms over the coming months is two percentage points higher than that predicting a decrease.
However, a higher proportion of employers in the construction sector expect employment levels to fall rather than rise over the coming few months.
The most frequently reported difficult-to-fill vacancies in each sector were: construction.
CSO figures last week showed signs that the labour market was beginning to weaken for the first time in a number of years, with the downturn likely to be linked to the construction sector.
A sharp rise in the number of people on the Live Register was recorded in June, with the unemployment rate up to its highest level since 2003. The headline figure jumped by 12,353 from May to 166,363, while the seasonally adjusted figure also rose by 3,600 to 163,400.