Ireland’s economy is booming and we’re at full employment.
That good news, however, hides a sting, especially for graduates: the strong economy can also make it even harder to find accommodation, and the cost of living remains painfully high. These factors, doubtless, have contributed to 69,000 people emigrating from Ireland between April 2023 and April 2024. Many younger people are heading to Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
For the graduates who choose to — or can — stay, there are many employment opportunities.
Kara McGann is head of skills and social policy at the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec).
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“We are in a rapidly evolving job market,” she says. “Technology is changing things fast, and forcing us to stay competitive in a global economy. Ireland needs graduates who are not only open to that challenge, but also for continuing to develop [their skills and abilities]; it’s crucial not just for employers, but also [for] a graduate’s own career.
“Graduates have superb skills, talent and competencies. They bring in a fresh perspective. Employers are also looking at what works well for graduates and adjusting accordingly. Likewise, they want graduates who can adapt and work within the structures of an organisation. A lot of it comes back to having a personable approach that looks to connect with other people,” McGann says.
Joan McNaboe, research manager of the skills and labour market research unit at Solas, the further education and training agency, says that there was significant movement between jobs in 2022, but that this is now beginning to settle down.
“Post-Covid, people spoke of the ‘great reshuffle’, but this was really more of a reshuffle where people changed careers,” she says.
“Today, there are lots of opportunities with employment high. Most sectors are growing, and graduate recruitment looks set to be strong — although there is evidence that occupational gender segregation, with males dominating some areas and females others, is leading to job shortages .”
Many of the key labour shortages are for niche, experienced, highly professional roles, but McNaboe says that there are still many entry-level or junior positions.
“They are everywhere and there is real demand. There are some key trends affecting jobs, including climate action, the growth of the circular economy, energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable finance and environmental, social and governance standards.
“When we think of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, we often think of roles in IT, but this is also a sector where there is a lot of compliance and regulation, and this is creating more jobs. We are also seeing lots of vacancies in cybersecurity.
“Further job growth may come from the lifting of the HSE’s recruitment embargo, which will allow health professionals such as nurses, therapists and doctors more chances of employment.”
McNaboe also points to demand for teachers, where schools are experiencing severe staff shortages, with some second-level schools even forced to drop subjects.
“There is lots of demand for maths, biology, construction studies and Irish teachers,” she says.
“There is a lot of EU work to be translated into Irish, which opens up employment routes for graduates with Irish.”
According to data from Indeed.com, one of Ireland’s leading job sites, the most in-demand job in 2024 is that of a registered nurse. After this, information security analysts, software engineers, ecommerce managers and digital content creators. With today’s Gen Z graduate being so nimble online, that last job could open up a lot of doors for them.
Other in-demand roles, according to Indeed, include UX (user experience) designer and UI (user interface) designers, automation engineers, sustainability manager and data scientist. The last two of those jobs, it is worth noting, didn’t even exist ten years ago, so bear in mind that new jobs pop into being all the time, so what a graduate thought they’d be doing a year ago can change overnight.
Physiotherapy, web development, truck driving, digital marketing specialists, technical writers who can present complex in an accessible way to a lay audience, and quality assurance specialists are in high demand too, the Indeed report says.
With an ageing population in Ireland, it’s no surprise that healthcare workers feature highly on Indeed’s list. And with growing compliance and regulation across industries including banking, food, media, architecture and construction, the demand for compliance officers is growing, too.
Are there particular areas where employment is stagnant, or even falling?
“You’ll see a few areas that are a little slow,” McNaboe says.
“Hospitality is nearly back to where it was pre-pandemic, although not quite. The transport sector has levelled out a little. And sectors that service business and are known as administrative support services employ security, cleaners and landscape gardeners, but of course with more people working from home and less in offices, there can be challenges here.”
Why the class of 2024 has a skills problem
Previous graduates were able to build soft skills such as teamwork, research and communication by getting involved in college life and holding down part-time jobs, but the class of 2024 endured over a year of remote learning, with student clubs and societies fully online, and the usual job opportunities for students — think hospitality and retail — shuttered or on hold.
But the lack of work and volunteering opportunities may mean significant gaps in their CV.
Employers know this, however, and understand why. Still, it’s a good idea to sit down and think carefully: what have I done over the past four years, and how can I use it to show employers the range of skills and abilities that I can bring to a role? This could be a group project in college, a volunteer role such as coaching or helping a charity, or perhaps taking up a new hobby during lockdown.
Always try to ensure that, however you highlight your skills and abilities, they directly link back to the particular job you’re applying for. And don’t just fire out the same CV to every employer; instead, tweak it based on the job advert.
Bear in mind, too, that you don’t necessarily need an engineering qualification to work in an engineering firm, or a business qualification to work in a finance firm, as many companies will provide training to any hire who they think has the right skills, attitude and attributes to work for them.
How the gender divide is leading to workplace shortages
Yes, Ireland has skills and labour shortages, but many of the workers we need are already here.
How is this?
Joan McNaboe, research manager of the skills and labour market research unit at Solas, explains.
“We recently produced a report, the Summer Skills Bulletin 2024, which looked at occupational gender segregation in Ireland and how unlocking labour supply can meet key skills needs.
“It showed how there are skills demands in jobs dominated by men, such as IT, engineering and construction. We need to encourage more women into these roles, and to stay in them.”
Although there are a small number of shortages in female-dominated occupations, particularly nursing and healthcare, the majority of occupations experiencing skills shortages are in male-dominated professions including engineers, IT project managers and carpenters.
The report highlighted how many working practices are not conducive to women today.
“More women are working flexible and part-time hours,” says McNaboe.
“There is a chicken and egg problem, as work practices are unlikely to change unless more women are in them, but women may not get into them unless those sectors change.”
Change can seem far away, but McNaboe points out that it has happened in some sectors already.
“Take finance, for instance. Financial occupations were not always gender neutral, and they were more likely to be dominated by men, but today there is a more equal balance,” she says.
While the report highlights that gender-based occupational segregation is a big contributor to the gender pay gap, its main focus is on how reducing this segregation could unlock a supply of labour. It points out that longer working hours “may act as a deterrent for entry or remaining in certain roles, particularly for those with caring responsibilities”, who are much more likely to be women.
The report concluded that attempts to increase female participation in education and training, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and maths jobs and in craft apprenticeships are likely to fail unless there is a serious reconsideration of the working conditions in these jobs —including working hours — which, ultimately, may discourage women.
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