The 2020s have been the most eventful decade since the 1970s, if not the 1940s. A global pandemic, lockdowns, an energy shock, the biggest inflation surge in 40 years, the largest and most rapid tightening of interest rates in monetary history, full-scale war in Europe, the dawn of the AI era and the most radically different US president in history. Having come through all of these shocks without a recession, it now looks as if the Irish economy is slowing of its own accord. The first and possibly most important piece of evidence for this is from the labour market.…