Tech, engineers and financial services among best-paid workers

Software engineers were particularly in demand, with salaries up to €110,000, or earning €550 per day contracting, while automation engineers could command up to €100,000 yearly, or €85 an hour. Picture: iStock

The average wage packet was €844 in the last quarter of 2020, an increase of 7.5% from the previous year, official data has shown – with tech workers and engineers among the best paid.

According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, average hourly earnings increased by 5.5% between the last quarter of 2019 and the same period in 2020, rising to €25.56.

The CSO cautions that "a relatively small number of high earners result in a positively skewed earnings distribution of employees in Ireland". 

Tech workers, engineers, and financial services employees were particularly well-paid, according to recruitment firm CPL, at the start of 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Software engineers were particularly in demand, with salaries up to €110,000, or earning €550 per day contracting, while automation engineers could command up to €100,000 yearly, or €85 an hour, a CPL analysis suggested in January 2020. 

The CSO said that according to preliminary estimates, average weekly earnings were €844.98 in the final quarter of 2020, an increase from €786.33 one year earlier. 

This represents average earnings of those remaining in employment in the Irish economy in the last quarter of 2020, including those supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), the CSO said.

COVID-19 impacts Earnings and Labour Costs Estimates for Quarter 4 2020https://t.co/6Tqcgl5Nqo #CSOIreland #Ireland #Earnings #LabourCosts #LabourMarket #LabourForce #BusinessStatistics #Business #BusinessNews #IrishBusiness #Jobs #Employment #Unemployment pic.twitter.com/hPIR2UgL8v

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) March 2, 2021

Alongside the CSO's data on wages, it also looked at patterns and data in the labour market overall.

Education saw the the largest increase in active employments from the third to the fourth quarter of 2020, with an almost 10% jump, the CSO said, while the largest decreases during the same period were in the arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities sectors, falling by more than 9%.

The largest increase in active employments between the first quarter of the year and the last was also in education, but at a much smaller 1.6%

Active employment is defined by the CSO as having work at any point in the quarter, as opposed to working consistently throughout.

The sector showing the largest quarterly percentage increase in average weekly earnings between the third and fourth quarters was the professional, scientific and technical activities sector at just over 20.5%.

The fluctuating nature of work during the Covid-19 pandemic was apparent when the entire year was examined.

A decrease of 13.5% was observed between the first and second quarters, but was then followed by an increase in active employments of 10.3% between the second and third quarters.