Ireland's tech scene is increasingly reliant on foreign jobseekers for talent
New data shows a challenge for tech in Ireland as talent is in demand.
THE IRISH TECH industry is increasingly relying on interest from foreign jobseekers to fill roles as employers face a labour shortage.
According to a new report released by job website Indeed, around 25% of clicks on tech jobs in Ireland came from abroad in 2018. This represents an eight percentage-point increase on the same figure five years ago.
Ireland’s tech scene is a major employer with multinational giants such as Google and Facebook increasing their headcounts alongside a growing number of indigenous outfits.
Indeed’s research looked at the amount of clicks on tech job roles by jobseekers from various countries to analyse future migration patterns.
Pawel Adrjan, economist with Indeed, 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.
Adrjan said the behaviour “reflects the shortage of labour facing employers in Ireland” considering that people from abroad account for 11% of all clicks on a typical job post.
Different countries
The research showed that most of the growth in foreign jobseeker interest came from outside the EU. While these accounted for 7% of all interest in tech roles five years ago, that figure grew to 13% in 2018.
Indeed compared this growth to the contribution of jobseekers outside the EU for similar roles in the UK, which has remained unchanged over the last five years.
In terms of individual countries, UK jobseekers were the most interested in Irish tech jobs, accounting for 22.8% of all clicks from abroad.
Next in line came Indian jobseekers at 14.2% of all clicks, followed by those in the US at 10.4%, and Spanish and Brazilian workers at 4.1% and 3.7% respectively.
Jobs such as software engineer, software architect and technical support specialist had the most openings in 2018.
Previous research from Indeed showed a growing security skills gap in Ireland, with not enough people to fill an increasing number of roles.
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