The demand for highly skilled professionals has risen in the past year, as job vacancies in Ireland increase by 29 per cent.
Morgan McKinley's latest employment monitor indicates a significant spike in the number of jobs on offer, but that demand is met with a decrease in the number of job seekers in the market. Morgan McKinley is a recruitment consultancy.
This trend is particularly prevalent in the tech industry, where there is a large demand for permanent positions in niche areas, such as .net and java, but there aren't enough professionals available to fill those jobs.
The employment monitor finds that number of professional job vacancies increased by almost 30% when comparing September 2014 (10,572) to September 2013 (8,184).
However, the number of professional candidates available has fallen from 9,670 in September 2013 to 8,930 in August 2014 to 7,400 in September 2014.
Karen O'Flaherty, Chief Operations Officer with Morgan McKinley, says these figures show “not only the vitality of the professional jobs market with vacancies opening up across all sectors, but also the favourable position that many job seekers are now in.
“In all professional sectors, from Finance to Tech, Engineering and HR, there has been a huge spike in the number of vacancies on offer, both compared to this time last year as well as August, which itself was a record month. The numbers of suitable candidates available is not matching the vacancies on offer leading to a ‘job seekers market’," O'Flaherty adds.
O’Flaherty believes that this ‘job seekers market’ has had knock one effects in the way job seekers are assessing offers of jobs in these sectors, and are looking beyond the financial package on offer and more closely at the culture of the company.
“Intriguingly, professional job seekers are also becoming savvier when it comes to potential employers and, as opposed to just examining the benefits packages on offer, are looking at the culture and values of the company.
“Employers need to take account of all this or they will face challenges when trying to source the best talent,” O’Flaherty says.
The growth of professional positions is not limited to tech sectors, however, with the study finding “There is notable increase within the SME sector for senior level finance manager roles and the banking sector has seen steady growth, especially when it comes to financial services accounting. As was the case for the last number of months, the professional job increases across all sectors have led to a greater need for back office support.”
Morgan McKinley have produced the following infographic showing the findings of the study
