Cost of living in Ireland a turn off for skilled foreign staff

Income tax levels and the general high cost of living in Ireland are hampering firms’ chances of recruiting specialist staff from abroad, a study has highlighted.

While the latest HR directors survey from PwC shows that Irish firms are ambitious about hiring staff, more than 60% said they are experiencing talent constraints and are struggling to find skilled workers for jobs in the technology, R&D, commercial, and digital areas in particular.

Four out of 10 survey respondents said these skills shortages seriously impacted their performance in the last year, leading to the delay or cancelling of key initiatives and a fall in innovation levels.