BANK OF IRELAND BUSINESS BANKING'S JOB INDEX SHOWS INCREASE OF 7% IN JOB ADVERTISEMENTS

- IT SECTOR CONTINUES ITS POSITIVE TREND

16,906 recruitment advertisements were placed in the national and daily Sunday newspapers in July, according to Bank of Ireland Business Banking's Job Index published today (Sunday, 8th August 2004).

This represents a 7% increase over July 2003 with the largest monthly increases year-on-year in the professional (+59%) and IT/Tech (+18%) sectors. The healthcare (+8%) and construction (+8%) sectors are also up, while the retail sector showed a gain of 5%. This is a continuation of the positive trend witnessed last month in the IT sector, which saw the highest number of IT recruitment advertisements placed since the Job Index began in March 2002.

This overall upturn is further evidenced by the most recent notified redundancy figures released by the Dept of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which saw a 24% drop on the July 03 redundancy figures.

Despite the overall increase however, there has been some monthly decreases year-on-year with one of the key drivers of the economy, the manufacturing sector (-35%), experiencing its first month-on-month decline since June 03. The financial (-32%) educational (-14%) and leisure (-2%) sectors all fell back following positive gains in June.

"Commenting on the findings of the Job Index, Mr. Cathal Muckian, Director, Bank of Ireland Business Banking said: "The findings of this month's job index reflect the continued resurgence of a number of key business sectors. While there was some decline on last month, due mainly to seasonal factors, the Job Index reflects the general upturn in the economy since the beginning of the year. This positive trend is facilitating business growth, which in turn is leading to a demand for labour. Bank of Ireland Business Banking is seeing similar growth across all areas of its business particularly in funding retail, food and construction development.

Dr Dan McLaughlin, Group Chief Economist, Bank of Ireland added, "Irish unemployment, as captured in the live register, peaked a year ago and has fallen steadily since, implying strong employment growth. Some 52,000 jobs were created in the year to the first quarter and Business Banking's Job Index points to a continuation of this picture by highlighting strong demand for labour over recent months. The economy grew by over 6% in Q1, led by a rebound in exports and business spending, in turn reflecting buoyant global conditions. This trend has been clearly picked up by the Job Index from last autumn. Employment growth has also picked up momentum in the US and the UK but the pace of labour recruitment in Ireland has been substantially higher. Indeed, employment growth remains limited in the euro area, with the result that the unemployment rate has been anchored around 9%, in contrast to the falling trend in Ireland, which has taken the rate to 4.3% from 4.8% a year ago".

END

Sunday, 8TH August 2004

For reference;
Anne Mathews
Media Relations Manager
Bank of Ireland Group
Tel: 01 6043836 / 087 2460358

Liam D'Arcy
Sectors Manager
Bank of Ireland Business Banking
Tel: 01 604 3713 / 086-8257734

Note to Editors:

About Bank of Ireland Business Banking

Bank of Ireland is the number one Bank for business in Ireland with dedicated business managers available through each of its 270 strong nationwide branch network. Bank of Ireland Business Banking now provides almost 100 business loans per day to all types of businesses ranging from start-ups to high-growth firms.

The Bank of Ireland business offer encompasses the full range of day-to-day business banking services as well as specialist Treasury, Commercial Finance, Credit card, Life Assurance planning services and Venture Capital. These business services are complemented by Bank of Ireland's Specialist Business Bank (SBB), a dedicated unit which assists Bank of Ireland branches and customers with more complex and specialist financial packages. Over 60,000 customers have registered for its "Business On Line" service.