Irish STEM battle shows healthy signs of improvement as graduates show increased interest in Junior Tech roles

Indeed, the world’s largest job website has announced it has launched Indeed Prime in Dublin. Prime is an online career platform that provides employers with top tech talent based on coding skills, education and work experience. The product is specifically designed to address the growing need for technical talent in all industries.

Amidst the current challenging tech recruitment environment in Ireland, Indeed data revealed that junior tech roles are receiving increased job seeker interest.  Job postings of junior tech roles increased by 27%, as a whole, since 2015. Luckily, job seeker interest has been keeping up with the strong employer demand, with Junior Product Manager roles receiving fourteen times more interest and Junior Software Engineer roles six times more job seeker interest than in 2015.

Commenting on the data, Indeed SVP of Product, Raj Mukherjee says: “ Knowledge-based economies are particularly dependent on the quality and quantity of STEM graduates. This significant spike in interest is a very positive sign for what is to come and shows that talent is finally starting to catch up with employer demand trends.” 

Recent data also revealed the top 10 hard to fill roles in the tech sector, and whilst the junior end of the market is quickly catching up with strong employer demand for new technology talent, there is a skills gap where more experienced technology candidates are required.

Rapid technological advances affect every company, so employer demand for highly skilled tech talent is on the rise. Indeed’s real time data reveals that Software Developer is the hardest role to fill in Ireland’s tech sector, with 32% of vacancies still open after 60 days. There are also severe shortages of suitable candidates for Senior Java Developer roles (28%), Front End Developers (27%), Software Architects (24%) and .net Developers (24%).  

“Every industry is being disrupted by software, and every company is becoming a software company. Finding, attracting and retaining tech talent is critical to business success”, explains Mukherjee.

He continues: “Irish employers compete for tech talent in a global pool that extends well beyond Ireland’s borders. The lack of housing supply and rising cost of living in Ireland have been raised as key challenges in attracting skilled foreign workers to take up employment in Dublin. Maintaining competitiveness is vital to  ensuring that Ireland remains an attractive destination for high-skilled talent.”

 “The market also needs to be smarter about how it identifies talent. Too often employers go fishing in the same, limited pool of people that graduate from specific universities. This can leave behind some high-quality talent that learned their skills elsewhere. With Indeed Prime we are able to help employers find previously undiscovered tech talent.” concludes Mukherjee.