A new report into the Irish employment scene shows a remarkably optimistic set of ICT employers, with almost every business in the sector eyeing higher headcounts and salaries in 2016.
According to Abrivia’s 2016 survey, 95pc of ICT companies want to up their staff numbers this year, with even more planning to increase salaries. And it’s not just contract staff feeling the benefit, either, with full-time positions in the offing in the vast majority of businesses.
Two-thirds of companies in the burgeoning sector plan to pay bonuses, with expansion in employee bases understandably leading to the need for larger office space.
71pc of ICT employees surveyed expect a pay rise this year, with almost two-thirds citing their salary as the most important factor “in terms of reward”.
IT jobs in Ireland
Last year, two-thirds of the firms surveyed expanded their workforce, with 14pc doubling their staff, and this year will see an increased push for current staff to sponsor new employees.
The latter is an example of how hard many businesses are finding it to recruit and hold on to potential staff, with over half reporting the average tenure of employees is just three-to-five years.
This fluidity best explains the power the labour force has over the employer, something impossible to imagine in other industries in the country.
One of the realities behind such staff fluidity is a workforce moving not just companies, but locations, too. Thus, the renting environment greatly influences how easy it is to recruit staff.
So, too, the actual labour pool. Ireland, of course, can’t satisfy the demand for employees, despite the ‘well-educated workforce’ line often trotted out; for many ICT companies the numbers and skillset just isn’t there, so they are recruiting from abroad.
Beyond borders
What’s surprising, though, is that the EU even fails to satisfy companies’ needs somewhat. Last year saw an increased readiness of companies to provide employment for non-EU citizens who require work permits.
“With the EU well of talent drying up considerably, many organisations felt compelled to look further afield to source candidates for high-skilled roles,” said Abrivia.
On the back of countless cyberattacks in 2015, and the promise of more to come in 2016, IT security and audit professionals will be most in demand. According to the report, on the back of the push for big data, relevant workers (as well as QA testers, Java, .Net, UI, Ruby, PHP and C++) are in for a good year.
Notable by its absence is the Python language, tipped as 2015’s in-demand language by various recruitment agencies this time last year.
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Dublin image via Roberto Taddeo/Flickr
