IT job sector performing well but shortage in Digital skills a concern for future growth

The number of professional job vacancies in October 2015 was up by 6% nationally compared to the same month last year according to the October 2015 Morgan McKinley Ireland Employment Monitor.  While there was a 10% decrease in the number of professionals entering the jobs market this month.

Within the IT sector, a 5% increase in software development and Quality Assurance (QA) roles was recorded this month. Also within IT, there was continued high demand for Big Data and Business Intelligence experts. Jobs growth is steady overall but talent shortages within the Tech sector remain and digital skills transfer programmes must be ramped up to meet current economic needs.

Morgan McKinley Ireland, Chief Operations Officer, Karen O’Flaherty, commented:

“Employment growth was steady this month, with a slight increase over September’s figures and a 6% increase on October 2014. The monitor recorded a 10% drop in professionals seeking new roles which is consistent with the time of year.

Talent shortages in core areas of economic activity remain. The higher rates of employment generally have undoubtedly resulted in less people looking for jobs. In the first six months of 2015 alone, IDA Ireland announced that 9,000 jobs had been created. The fact is that many of the jobs created this year are new roles that do not require legacy skill sets. Advancing technology is underpinning this trend, regardless of sector, and is at the core of new emerging job disciplines. Digital marketing is an example of a specific sector seeking expertise in niche and leading edge skills driven by data and mobile, creating unprecedented demand compared to 5 or 10 years ago.

Digital skills transfer programmes must be ramped up and tested to ensure they are fit for purpose in the current market.

Graduate programmes across professional services, engineering, accounting and financial services are a strong feature of the jobs market again as companies compete for talent and as a result need to offer competitive pay, benefits and career pathways. Many of these programmes had been reduced or phased out in recent years. The nature of the candidate driven market at the moment has led companies to again prioritise pipelining talent from third level.

There is continued demand in the accounting and finance sectors with Multinationals and SME’s recruiting qualified professionals for roles such as Financial Accountants, Financial Analysts and Business Analysts as their businesses grow. The demand for talent is resulting in upward pressure on salaries and companies having to be innovative regarding their talent attraction strategies.   

Overall, the professional jobs market remains buoyant. At a policy level however, talent availability is one of the key factors which underpins an organisations decision to locate here. Ireland’s need to continue to invest, develop and attract quality professionals cannot be underestimated.”