Why Ireland’s Tech Sector is Still Thriving
Over the past few weeks, I have never been asked more for my opinion on the current state of the tech sector by colleagues, family and friends. It has been difficult knowing that people within the industry have lost their jobs. However, this problem has been several years in the making. Whether it be our recruiters losing prospective candidates to these companies and paying 20% (or more) above market rates or losing internal staff to these companies on much higher salaries – it was always hard to imagine this was sustainable.
While it’s been painted as a “tech sector crisis”, a more apt name might be an “internal recruitment crisis”. The majority of staff who were let go by these companies came from a Business or Commercial background like Sales, Marketing and Internal Business, with the majority being Internal Recruiters. This is more of a sign of a slower, more targeted amount of recruitment going forward than rapidly downsizing the IT/technical team – with other areas trimmed rather than cut. On a positive note, many experienced recruiters have seen this happen sporadically within the last decade and it is likely that companies will be hiring rapidly again within the next 2 to 3 years – market history indicates that situations like this come in cycles.
The good news
The tech sector in Ireland is still thriving. At FRS Recruitment, we have 37% more roles on our desk than at the same time in 2021 and various key clients have given us a massive pipeline to hire within IT in Q1 2023. Most of these companies are 5-250 people in size and operate differently to the standard multinational company. The key for us as a population is not to panic.
As everyone knows, we have had a shortage of experienced IT people for the past 5 years in Ireland. That hasn’t changed with the news that has dropped in the past few weeks. Companies still can’t find enough Software Engineers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and Data personnel, and we are being asked every day to support and build technical teams for all types of companies. If there is a so called “recession” coming, nobody has told the majority of our clients!! While– predicting the market is not an exact science, the IT sector in Ireland is far from receding, and excellent opportunities still exist for capable candidates.
My advice to anyone who is affected by the recent job cuts:
To apply for IT and Tech jobs, Click Here.
Feel free to reach out to me at any point if you have any questions on the above
Darragh O’Brien
Head of IT