The economy of Limerick is a combination of multinational companies and indigenous service and supply firms which creates a wide and very diverse employment field, says Robert Graydon, operations manager with Irish Recruitment Consultants.

"Grant aid from the IDA and Shannon Development were a major attraction for overseas investors to locate here in Limerick," he says.

"A lot of local companies grew up around these multinationals by recognising and feeding into their outsourcing requirements."

While the engineering and electronic industrial sectors are, by now, well established in a range of locations in the region, some new industries are also emerging.

"Call centres and support centres are seen as a boom area and this is creating opportunities for people with linguistic skills," he adds.

The presence of companies such as Esat Digifone and telecommunications company Chorus in the region has created hundreds of jobs.

Although they are mainly for English speakers, French and German speakers are also in strong demand in the sector, further diversifying the market.

The strengthening of Limerick's economy can be seen in the number of recruitment agencies that are now servicing the human resources needs of the local business community.

Mr Graydon estimates that in the last four to five years there has been a doubling of recruitment companies in the city as Dublin-based agencies establish offices there.

The jobs market has slowed down somewhat in recent times but the IRC operations manager remains upbeat about the situation.

"There is some caution in the market at the moment.

"Companies that would traditionally be busy recruiting at this time are cutting back by relying more on existing resources and personnel or watching their costs against production," he says.

"If this is still the situation in six months time there will be a lot more concern but I think this is just a temporary lull", he explained.