Ireland sees demand spike for staff in four key IT areas – report

27 Jan 2015

JavaScript developers, Python developers, security engineers and QA testers are badly needed in the Irish IT sector, a new report suggests.

Morgan McKinley’s research into Ireland’s salary situation in 2015 has found that these four areas will require significant numbers of employees in the coming year.

Due to the huge push towards web applications, an acute need for Javascript developers is already in existence. Indeed this demand is particularly popular with more powerful frameworks such as Backbone, Angular and Ember.

“Javascript is now recognised as its own fully functional language and this has led to a number of companies looking to source this specific skill set,” reads the report.

Speaking of languages, Python, too, has become an integral cog in the Irish IT industry. This is two-fold it seems. Firstly, as a fairly productive language to develop, it has become one of the more popular ones to use. Given the need to test the growing amount of software developed here the requirement for QA professionals and testers – with knowledge of Java, .Net, Python etc. – also grows in significance.

This reflects a similar report from Hays in December, which found that development positions with Java, .Net, Ruby and Python are still the most common jobs on the market.

Security concerns

The swathe of cyber attacks within the past 18 months has raised companies’ awareness that stronger security measures are needed, meaning the whole area is seeing increased investment, with information and security professionals much more in demand than before.

Elsewhere, areas such as big data have seen a bigger need for people with data analysis skills who can evaluate data-buying needs and trends as well as demonstrate real value in forecasting.

“Leading edge technology, training and career development, work-life balance, benefits and profit share schemes were among the major factors for ICT professionals considering whether to stay with their current employer or move to a competing organisation,” reads the report.

“Due to the shortages of certain skill sets such as SAP, Java, UI and cloud within the permanent recruitment market, hiring managers have become more amenable to sourcing contractors in order to secure the talent for key areas and projects.”

Interestingly the contract market yields significantly lower rates outside of Dublin, 10-15pc lower in fact. “However, contractors with expertise in applications such as CRM/ERP command rates in line with those offered in Dublin.”

Headhunter image, via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt
By Gordon Hunt

Gordon Hunt joined Silicon Republic in October 2014 as a journalist. He spends most of his time avoiding conversations about music, appreciating even the least creative pun and rueing the day he panicked when meeting Paul McGrath. His favourite thing on the internet is the ‘Random Article’ link on Wikipedia.

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