Soaring IT pay, but where are the candidates?

2 March 2007

2 minute read

Soaring IT pay, but where are the candidates?

Rising vacancies and a dearth of candidates have driven up pay in the Irish IT sector by as much as 20% in the last year, according to a recruitment consultant for the industry.

Demand for IT staff is especially high at financial services companies, says Hugh McCarthy, IT team leader at recruitment agency Brightwater in Dublin.

"It would be hard to find a sector where we have not had recruitment needs in the last 12 months," McCarthy says. "The large multinationals are all hiring, and nearly all of the medium to small indigenous software companies have significant additional headcount planned for 2007. The competitive nature of the IT recruitment market at the moment and the lack of qualified talent has driven up salaries across the board."

One in five IT companies is experiencing difficulties in attracting enough

suitably qualified workers, a survey conducted by the Irish Computer Society

showed earlier this year. A separate survey carried out by Dublin City

University found that the number of job vacancies in the sector had climbed

26% to 13,900 between May last year and the end of January 2007.

"In the current climate, candidates with just a little experience will have

two or three options on the table once they start looking for jobs," McCarthy says. "This was unheard of only two years ago."

"Software engineers, computer analysts and programmers are high in demand

now, especially in the financial services sector," confirms Rody Molloy,

director-general of national employment authority Fas.

The shortage of candidates dates back to the collapse of the global dotcom

market in 2001, which deterred many Irish students from pursuing