The latest Dublin Economic Monitor by Dublin City Council makes very positive reading until you get into the detail which shows that Dublin has run out of skilled workers .
Since the beginning of 2012 an additional 150,000 people have been added to the Dublin workforce with a total of 696,000 currently employed as of Q3 2018 -the highest level since records commenced in 1998.
Indeed with the labour market in Dublin heading for full employment the report raises concerns around the availability of skills and talent to keep the economic boom going and skills and labour shortages are starting to constrain investment and growth.
The report also expresses alarm about housing and the lack of same with 5000 homes completed in the first three quarters of 2018 however levels remain far below what is required to meet demand and the report fears that this phenomenon may be feeding into the skills shortage with high rents ( in excess of E 1600 per month ) acting as a barrier to employers attracting talent from overseas and from the Dublin Diaspora .
Nothing new here for Back 4 Good subscribers as we have highlighted these issue for the past 4 years and have submitted many proposals to the Irish Government on how to address these issues.
Certainly the economic outlook for Dublin is very positive and the report mentions the significant recent investment announce cents in the capital city with SalesForce a US software company ,recently announcing a signifiant expansion of its Dublin operations which could see 1,500 jobs created over the next 5 years and Facebook announcing a major investment plan which will lead to 1,000 new jobs in 2019 across sales, engineering and marketing.
Good news for returnees is that house prices are ” levelling off ” in November 2018 the Dublin Residential Property Price Index fell for the first tome since April 2017 however the drop os small at below 1% nevertheless at least it is a drop and not a significant rise .
The shadow of Brexit hangs over the capital and Ireland and is a major source of concern for many Dublin businesses since mid-2016 .
Dublin Businesses are looking at ways to insulate themselves from the potential fallout .The report mentions Dublin Port ,which recorded its second consecutive quarter of negative YoY growth in Q4 2018 and it is preparing for the possibility of a no-deal brexit. As an example of a company at the forefront of any Brexit ” Fallout ‘ the Port is spending €30 million in preparation -€10 million on primary inspection posts and €20 million on secondary inspection posts for State Agencies carrying out checks on good requiring customs clearance.
Overall the report is very positive and Dublin has come a long way from the 2018 crash and unemployment levels of over 20% in some parts of the city .However the city like the rest of Ireland is running out of skilled workers and even when employers find skilled workers these workers cannot be accommodated in the city .
Solutions are available with the Back 4 Good model but as our subscribers are well aware politicians are slow to take the actions required.
