The Morgan McKinley Irish Employment Monitor has recorded 18% more professional jobs available in September (a total of 8,851) compared to the same month in the previous year, when there were 7,500.

This data, based on the recruiter’s own monthly record and derived from the company’s marketshare, also represents 13% month-on-month growth.

However, quarter-on-quarter there was a slight fall in job opportunities from 25,112 in Q2 2012 to Q3’s 24,631, but this did represent a yearly rise of around 1,500.

The number of professional jobseekers dropped by 8% to 10,225, the second-lowest number in 2012, but it still remained marginally ahead of September 2011’s level.

Karen O’Flaherty, chief operations officer, Morgan McKinley comments: “Q3 2012 has ended on a strong note... Despite fluctuations in the hiring market this year, the overall number of roles coming onto the professional jobs market exceeds 2011 and this increase in September 2012 underlines the trend for improvement in the market this year.

“We can attribute this increase to a number of factors such as the uplift in start up businesses, increased foreign direct investment as well as sectors such as IT, manufacturing and life sciences which have all experienced growth throughout 2012.”