Companies in Ireland and other overseas destinations have returned to hiring.

Setting up a recruitment company with the view to placing candidates in overseas markets such as Ireland, which is currently experiencing increased levels of hiring activity, can be a worthwhile venture.

A recruitment professional recently urged his peers, in a thread on business social networking site LinkedIn, to focus on niche markets if they want to increase their chances of success.

With one in three firms surveyed recently by Berkley admitting that they are hiring right now, this could be the right moment for recruiters to try and break into the Irish market.

Three-quarters of companies polled believe the worst of the economic downturn is over. This is reflected in statistics showing 36.5 per cent of companies were hiring people in the second quarter, up from 26.5 per cent in the previous three months.

Increased employment activity is not just restricted to Ireland. Companies in Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, China and Singapore are also hiring, according to the survey.