A stint in the US, Canada, Australia or NZ could increase your earning potential

Gaining work experience in financial centres outside of Ireland could mean you ultimately end up earning as much as 11% more than your less travel-minded contemporaries.

At least that's the theory put forward by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which suggests that Irish emigrates who spent at least a year working abroad earned more when they returned home.

The ERSI interviewed over 42,000 workers across various industries for its research, but financial services workers with experience in overseas markets can expect a significant premium.

Paul Cotter, director of Irish recruiters Cotter Personnel, says: "People with experience in places like London, New York and Hong Kong are usually headhunted back to Ireland and need to be enticed back. Clients are sometimes prepared to pay as much as 20-30% more for international experience than for candidates from the local market."

Those with experience in the US and Canada earn an average of 11% more per week, while those returning from Australia and New Zealand can expect 10% extra, according to ERSI figures. UK experience can command a 5% premium. This is regardless of qualifications.

Greg O'Hanlon, partner at GHI Consultancy Group in Ireland, focuses on trying to sway Irish expat financial services workers in Australia back home.

"Australia is far more advanced in areas like insurance, compliance and regulation, which is currently valued in the Irish market," he says. "People are still interested in coming home, but this is largely for personal, rather than monetary, reasons."

Figures from the Central Statistics office show that to April 2009 emigration from Ireland was up 40% on the previous 12 months. While it would be easy to suggest the country was facing a brain drain due to the grim economic conditions, the ERSI suggest otherwise.

It says that outward migration can be viewed positively "once the timeframe of analysis is long enough for emigration and return to occur" and that people subsequently return with "enhanced levels of human capital".

"There is still a mentality that individuals coming from certain international markets offer levels or types of expertise that not exist locally," adds James Hayes, manager - banking & financial services at Robert Walters in Ireland.