{"id":304485,"date":"2026-02-18T16:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304485\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:01:07","slug":"ireland-and-younger-workers-most-exposed-to-ai-impact-on-jobs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304485\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland and younger workers \u2018most exposed\u2019 to AI impact on jobs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s labour market is \u201cparticularly exposed\u201d to artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a>, and younger workers in highly digitised sectors are the most at risk group, the Department of Finance<\/a> has warned.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s latest economic insights paper has said AI has the potential to \u201csignificantly reshape\u201d labour markets over the medium to long-term, with implications for productivity, job creation and the nature of skills demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland\u2019s labour market is particularly exposed to AI given the high concentration of employment in knowledge-intensive sectors such as ICT, financial services and professional activities,\u201d the department warned.<\/p>\n

The department said it has found evidence AI may have already influenced employment patterns in Ireland, with \u201cat risk\u201d sectors experiencing weaker employment growth in recent years relative to less-exposed sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese effects appear to be concentrated among younger workers, in particular in the ICT sector \u2013 consistent with international evidence which suggests that AI adoption is having its most pronounced impacts on entry-level and junior employees in highly digitalised sectors,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Postings from jobs platform Indeed indicate Ireland\u2019s labour market is currently undergoing rapid change, with AI-terms mentioned in over 11 per cent of all job postings as of November, up from 4 per cent in November 2023 \u2013 around three times the share of both the EU and US. <\/p>\n

The Irish economy has a high concentration of employment in knowledge-intensive services, including in \u201chighly exposed\u201d ICT, financial services and professional activities sectors, the department noted.<\/p>\n

Due to the make-up of the Irish economy, it may be \u201camong the first\u201d advanced economies where early AI labour market impacts become measurable.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the rate of growth in AI skills demand in Ireland \u201chas been striking\u201d. The share of postings mentioning AI almost doubled between November 2024 and November 2025, having already doubled in the preceding year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis rapid pace of growth, combined with the scale of AI-related skills demand, suggests Ireland\u2019s labour market is at the global frontier of AI adoption, and is likely to be among the first countries to face more widespread AI-driven labour market disruption,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n

While there is \u201cclear evidence\u201d of strong and growing demand for AI-related skills in a variety of occupations, it is not known \u201chow broadly\u201d AI is being deployed across different sectors. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be the case that AI adoption is currently concentrated among large multinational technology firms and has not yet diffused more widely across other sectors of the economy,\u201d the department said. <\/p>\n

Data from 2024 indicated just over half of large enterprises use AI technologies in Ireland, compared with just 12 per cent of small sized enterprises. <\/p>\n

AI is having its \u201cmost visible effects\u201d among recent graduates in occupations with higher AI exposure and low complementarity. <\/p>\n

The department pointed to US research which found that since the release of ChatGPT, early-career workers aged 22-25 in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 16 per cent relative decline in employment.<\/p>\n

In contrast, employment has remained stable or continued to grow for workers in less exposed fields and for more experienced workers in the same occupations. <\/p>\n

\u201cAI-related labour market adjustments have occurred mainly through changes in hiring and entry, rather than through the displacement of existing workers,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is logical: younger workers are more likely to be concentrated in entry-level or junior roles where tasks may be more easily automated, whereas older workers are more likely to work in senior or managerial roles which require greater levels of responsibility and human judgment. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, it is likely that it is easier for firms to manage headcount by slowing or pausing new recruitment, rather than making existing staff redundant given the potential costs associated with redundancies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s labour market is \u201cparticularly exposed\u201d to artificial intelligence (AI), and younger workers in highly digitised sectors are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[218,1398,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-304485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-department-of-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}