Nearly half of Irish employers have reduced the number of entry and graduate-level roles available in their organisation this year, recruitment platform IrishJobs has said, as businesses adopted a more “targeted” approach to hiring amid rising costs. The company, which surveyed 500 human resources professionals and almost 1,000 jobseekers in Ireland for its latest hiring trends report, also said more than a quarter of firms are now recruiting for highly specialised roles in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. More than 80 per cent of recruiters told IrishJobs that recruitment has become more strategic and focused on specific roles. With labour costs rising, companies are moving to a “more targeted model of talent acquisition”, the platform said, with 47 per cent of recruiters saying they have cut the number of graduate and entry-level roles available. However, the Irish economy continued to add jobs despite the global economic headwinds, said Julius Probst, labour economist at IrishJobs’ parent firm, StepStone Group Ireland. “Despite a major energy shock and elevated geopolitical uncertainty, economic indicators show that the Irish economy is navigating these challenges well and continues to experience domestic growth,” he said. “The hiring outlook remains broadly positive with employers expected to face continuing high levels of competition for talent and strong upward pressure on wage growth.” While the labour market remains “fundamentally resilient”, there are signs of retrenchment and the adoption of a more strategic approach to hiring, said Christopher Paye, Ireland country director for StepStone. “As hiring becomes more selective, our findings show that employers are prioritising targeted capability-building in specialised functions such as AI and cybersecurity, rather than broad-based expansion,” he said. [ Meta workers are bracing for another round of job cuts. We should all be nervousOpens in new window ]“Rising labour costs and advances in AI are also reshaping workforce planning, prompting many employers to rebalance their hiring mix and focus on experienced talent with in-demand skills.” In a separate report published on Tuesday, technology and consulting group Expleo said Irish managers remained bullish on the impact that AI could have on their businesses. Sixty-five per cent of the managers surveyed as part of the group’s monthly AI Pulse sentiment tracker said they were confident about the technology in April, a figure unchanged from March. However, Irish managers were more likely than those in France, Germany and the UK to value empathy as a fundamental skill for managers in the AI era, the report said. Twenty-eight per cent of Irish respondents cited empathy in that context, compared with 21 per cent of UK managers, 15 per cent of the French cohort and 18 per cent in Germany.“The high proportion of business leaders valuing human-centred leadership actually shows a great level of AI maturity,” Expleo Ireland managing director Phil Codd said. “Business leaders here understand that it is people who transform organisations, not AI.”