Employers of tech talent in Ireland are relying to an increasing degree on interest from foreign job seekers to fill roles in this fast-growing sector.
This is according to data from the world’s largest job site, Indeed, which shows 25% of clicks on tech jobs in Ireland came from abroad in 2018, an increase from 17% five years ago.
Demand for highly skilled candidates for tech jobs remains robust in the Irish market and such jobs account for a substantial proportion of overall job postings on Indeed locally. Twelve per cent of the total number of jobs posted on the site in Ireland in 2018 were in the tech space, with jobs such as software engineer, software architect and technical support specialist among those with the most openings.
The data shows that one of the growing areas of tech is cybersecurity. Earlier this year, Indeed published separate data highlighting an elevated demand for candidates within the cybersecurity field, with an 18% jump in demand from employers for such candidates far outstripping supply. Employers were most commonly seeking IT security specialists and security engineers, as well as IT auditors, security analysts and information security analysts.
Today’s research from Indeed shows that in the face of this sustained demand for tech talent, most of the growth in foreign jobseeker interest has come from outside of the EU. Five years ago, 7% of job seeker interest in tech roles came from outside the EU – today that figure stands at 13%. In contrast, the contribution of jobseekers for similar roles from the UK (6%) and the rest of the EU (7%) has remained relatively stable.
Speaking this week, Economist with Indeed, Pawel Adrjan said, "Migration flows have always been a feature of the Irish labour market and clicks from abroad can be a good indicator of future migration intentions. With unemployment falling below 5% in today’s competitive labour market, employers in many sectors depend increasingly on inward migration to increase their workforce.
He added, "It’s clear from the data that Ireland is attracting jobseekers from far and wide, from Brazil to India. Considering only 11 per cent of the clicks on a typical job posting on Indeed’s Ireland site come from outside the country, to see 25 per cent of clicks on tech roles coming from abroad reflects the shortage of labour facing tech employers in Ireland."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
