ICT, science, engineering and finance industries in line for 10% pay rises

People working in ICT, science, engineering and finance may say their salaries increase by 10% this year.

According to the Morgan McKinley 2017 Irish salary guide the most in-demand skills will continue to be in the pharmaceutical, financial services and IT sectors and that these areas will see potential salary jumps of 5% to 10% over the next year.

The report said while there are positive trends being seen regarding gender across many sectors like science, engineering and technology, research carried out last year still showed an average earnings gap of 20% remains between men and women in professional jobs.

“The ‘pay gap’ which represents a global rather than Ireland-only trend is however, a demotivating influencing factor on the potential for women to enter careers in important sectors of the economy,” said the report.

“This is an anomaly particularly where there are skills shortages that could be addressed through the continuing promotion of gender diversity and pay transparency.”

The Morgan McKinley study said Ireland continues to attract returning emigrants from Europe, Australia and the US across a range of industries. In 2016, inward migration overtook net outward migration for the first time since 2009. It said recent foreign direct investments in the regions outside Dublin support this trend.

The report said growth in the building and construction sector will be significant this year as commercial and housing markets react to increased demand. The Construction Industry Federation has predicted sector growth of 9% between now and 2020 and is targeting workers abroad to fill 112,000 vacancies in the process.

The Morgan McKinley chief operations officer, Karen O’Flaherty, said Brexit has potential implications for the Irish economy.

“Approximately 30% of all employment is in sectors that are heavily related to UK exports — particularly SMEs in the agrifood and tourism sectors,” she said.

“Given the increased prominence of a hard Brexit scenario, any negative shock to export demand in the future would flow through the economy with potential implications for the labour market and employment.”