Salary growth across professional careers 'effectively stalled' 

Salary growth now concentrated in a narrow set of specialist disciplines such as advanced technology, while in other sectors salary movement ranges from zero to 2%, according to report

Global foreign direct investment director at Morgan McKinley Trayc Keevans said organisations are keeping 'permanent teams lean and stable, while relying heavily on contract and fixed term talent to deliver programmes, manage regulatory change and protect internal capacity'.

Salary growth across a range of professional careers has slowed sharply across the Irish labour market, with median permanent salary movement ranging from a largely flat to 2% with increases tracking at or below inflation, recruitment firm Morgan McKinley has said.

According to the company’s latest Irish salary guide report, salary growth is now concentrated in a narrow set of specialist disciplines, including advanced technology, cyber and data governance, environmental, social, and governance, regulatory risk and compliance and large-scale change delivery.

In these areas, uplifts of between 4% and 8% are still being recorded where skills shortages remain acute. However, outside of these areas, salary growth has “effectively stalled”.

Instead, employers are looking to compete on flexibility, hybrid working, as well as other benefits.

It said companies were under pressure to deliver digital transformation, meet regulatory and compliance obligations and manage leaner operating models at the same time as controlling costs.

Morgan McKinley said the labour market “remains active” but “far more disciplined”, with Irish employers continuing to hire but doing so with tight control over headcount and reserving salary premiums only for skills that are “genuinely critical to delivery or risk management”.

Global foreign direct investment director at Morgan McKinley Trayc Keevans said with the hybrid workforce now “embedded”, organisations are keeping “permanent teams lean and stable, while relying heavily on contract and fixed-term talent to deliver programmes, manage regulatory change and protect internal capacity”.

“Many of these newer specialist roles are being filled on a contract basis, which is driving faster growth in contract rates than in permanent salaries.” 

One of the clearest shifts in the data, according to Morgan McKinley, is the divergence between permanent and contract remuneration. Permanent salaries have largely plateaued, while contract rates have risen in several sectors, in some cases by as much as 10%.

“That reflects how employers are funding transformation, by holding firm on core roles while directing pay investment into specific, time bound expertise,” Ms Keevans said.

At a sectoral level, the data shows hiring in the tech sector is changing, and while overall demand has stabilised following global restructuring in large tech firms, acute shortages persist in AI, machine learning, data engineering and cybersecurity.

In accounting and finance, hiring activity has been consistent across commerce, industry, and professional services. Salary growth in this area has “largely plateaued”, with most permanent roles seeing increases of between zero and 2%.

In banking and financial services, hiring has become “more targeted", with organisations focusing on roles that are revenue-generating, regulatory driven or transformation critical. Salary growth across the sector has averaged 2%-3%.

In the construction sector, demand for staff remains strong, despite pauses in certain sectors such as data centres and large scale pharma investment.

Hiring in human resources is subdued, with limited senior movement and a marked increase in contract and interim hiring. “Candidates are placing greater emphasis on total reward packages, flexibility and organisational culture rather than base pay alone,” Morgan McKinley said.

Salary growth in the legal, risk and compliance has cooled to modest levels as firms focus on retention through flexibility, culture and workload management rather than pay escalation. Contract hiring has increased slightly for regulatory remediation and project-based work.

In sales and marketing, salary movement has stalled, with employers holding firm on pay and competing instead on flexibility, scope and stability.