More people are coming to work in Ireland, more people are starting businesses and more companies are hiring.

More people are calling themselves entrepreneurs and more people in Ireland are becoming sole traders, according to new figures from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, which has over a million members in Ireland, says there was an 80% growth in the number of members describing themselves as an entrepreneur in March 2016 than there was in March 2015. There was also a 23.8% increase in the number of sole traders on the platform.

Companies are hiring more

Companies are hiring more people. The number of employers on LinkedIn with up to ten employees increased by 11.7% over a twelve-month period.

“It is positive to see the growth of SMEs and entrepreneurs as this is a real sign of business confidence,” says Sharon McCooey, senior director international operations and site leader of LinkedIn Ireland.

“We see new companies emerging in a range of diverse fields beyond the technology industry, such as professional services, architecture and the entertainment sector.”

Professionals moving to Ireland 

The Irish software sector has benefited most from professional migration to Ireland.  

There was a 36.1% increase in LinkedIn members based in Ireland working in the industry compared to last year (March 2016 Vs March 2015.)

Other sectors that experienced high levels of growth were the pharmaceutical (20.5%) and recruitment (19.4%) industries.

Latin America was the biggest net contributor of professionals to Ireland, followed by France, the Balkans & Eastern Europe, Asia and Italy respectively.  

In contrast, the regions that attracted the most professionals from Ireland were North America, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia.

READ: How to use LinkedIn to recruit great people.

 

 

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/working-in-ireland-linkedin/ on