Recruitment consultants Hays revealed salary levels for newly-recruited professionals stabilised in 2010, with some niche positions where recruits are in short supply witnessing increases of 20pc, according its Annual Salary Guide.
Hays examined the salaries and terms and conditions across 934 positions in seven key sectors, including IT, HR, accounting and finance, banking, financial services, construction and property, insurance and office support. Almost all sectors saw salaries level out after dropping by as much as 30pc in 2009.
“It’s great to not only see salary rates a lot steadier this year, but increases starting to emerge. This is generally being reflected in the level of hiring going on, as well,” said Richard Eardley, managing director of Hays in Ireland.
“This is due in no small part to the multinationals present in Ireland. They are currently maintaining the economy and the good news is that we continue to attract investment so there is demand across a wide range of disciplines.”
The research showed that IT was the strongest sector in the economy last year, with new IT-centric organisations selecting Ireland as their European headquarters and existing companies expanding within the State.
The study also showed that project work was most prevalent in the financial services and public-services sectors. Contractors with expertise in Java, C# and .net on the development side and VMWare, Unix and SAN specialists on the infrastructure side, are all highly sought after.
In the niche end, a virtualisation network manager on contract earned from €350 per day in 2009 to €385 in 2010. It also revealed that Java is still in demand for permanent employees, as is C#.
“Permanent recruiters value industry experience as much as skills, and any individuals with financial services, FMCG, technology and public-sector backgrounds will find options in the market. Saving money is currently foremost in many companies’ minds, so candidates with experience of technologies that cut costs, such as cloud computing, virtualisation CRM/ERP and automation, will command premium salaries. Nordic languages, German and Dutch are also in demand,” according to the Annual Salary Guide.
