The Celtic Tiger is showing signs of life. It’s not a full-throated roar, but there is some evidence that the Irish economy may be at last waking from its slumber. This has important implications for recruiters and recruitment.

After its economy collapsed following reckless lending by its banks, and an ignominious bailout, there are some encouraging signs that the worst may be over. Ireland’s trade surplus hit a record in June, rising by 8% to €4.08bn (£3.62bn) Meanwhile, bookmaker Paddy Power announced that it was increasing the number of staff it intends to recruit by more than the 800 it announced in November.

Staffing agencies see positive signs. “If you read the papers, Ireland is sinking but it isn’t. It is doing well,” says Bryan Hyland, operations director for Morgan McKinley in Ireland.

Hyland says that the company has seen the number of jobs increase in the first half of this year by 46% compared with the first half last year. The company is looking to expand its staff numbers in Ireland by between 40-60% by the end of the year, he adds.

Louise Campbell, managing director of Robert Walters’ Dublin office says she has seen “a noticeable increase in the number of roles available across accounting, compliance, risk, legal, IT, supply chain and procurement from the first half of the year. The Dublin market is certainly busier than it was in 2010.”

Higher exports and a strong performance from Ireland’s services sector, supported by foreign direct investment, have been the driver for much of the good economic news, says Dr Ronnie O’Toole, chief economist at National Irish Bank. Strongly performing sectors include IT and software, as well as more traditional industries such food and tourism, he says.

Solano Tech is one export-reliant company looking to expand. John Mee, Solano’s chief executive, says he plans to recruit 35 software engineers by the spring. The company provides software to customers in Europe for the burgeoning mobile broadband devices market. “I would say it has nothing to do with the Irish economy at all, but the global market,” he says.

While Mee predicts that he will have little difficulty filling these vacancies, by recruiting nationals from other countries if necessary, some recruiters report skill shortages across a number of areas.

Catherine Jordan, director of Hall Recruitment in Dublin, says that despite an unemployment rate of 14.4%, positions in certain sectors haven’t been touched by the collapse of the wider economy. They include pharma, life sciences and R&D “and all that techy stuff”, says Jordan.

“For the type of people they are looking for, there might be over 400,000 unemployed but it is difficult to recruit in those sectors,” she says.

At the same time, Jordan says that, when jobs such as administrators are advertised, companies are often inundated. with applications. This is not the panacea for employers it might appear.

Not only are desperate candidates applying for jobs for which they are unsuitable, they have unrealistic expectations of earning the salary they had when the economy was booming, she explains.

Employers are also more picky. “Employers are looking for 99% fit, and they will wait for 99% fit,” she says.

According to O’ Toole, Ireland suffers from having “a two-track economy” with the export-led and services doing well, while the rest of the economy remains in the doldrums.

And despite the strong performance of the export sector, although even this is predicted to weaken because of the global economic slowdown, unemployment is unlikely to decline.

This is because while the export sector is highly productive, the downside is that it doesn’t recruit a lot of people, he says.

The Celtic Tiger may be showing signs of life, but until the economy as whole recovers, it could be a long time before recruitment truly picks up.