Ireland faces a new IT skills shortage

Ireland faces a new IT skills shortage, with salaries in some software and technology companies jumping 15%, writes Adrian Weckler.
“At a minimum, we have seen a 10% increase on base salaries,” said Hugh McCarthy, an IT jobs recruiter at Brightwater Recruitment. “Bonuses of between 10 to 15% have also come back into play in some software companies. Last week, it was revealed that Google was to give its Dublin-based staff salary increases of over €5,000. The company is also to pay a Christmas bonus to staff of €1,000.
“In the last few months, it’s been getting much harder to recruit people,” said Cian Collins, a senior manager in Lumension, a US multinational IT security company based in Galway. “One of the problems is that a lot of people in college aren’t doing IT courses. They’re doing finance instead”. Other companies complaining about a lack of skilled IT staff include Paddy Power and Daft.ie. Skills in short suppy include Microsoft-related skills such as DotNet and C++. “There is an appalling shortage of certain skill sets in IT at the moment,” said McCarthy. It is quite shocking in the current climate. We are dealing with companies from large multinationals to small indigenous software companies which are really struggling to get competent staff.”
As a result, Irish-based firms are having to recruit IT staff abroad. “Because of the lack of skilled IT workers here, we have to go looking for the right people all over Europe,” said Martin Shakouri, a recruitment specialist from Computer People. “We now pull in guys from Britain, Germany, Switzerland and France”.