More than 80pc of people surveyed by global recruitment company Morgan McKinley have said they are considering a career move in the next few months.

Irish-owned Morgan McKinley surveyed key hiring decision makers from Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Japan, Canada and the UK to get an insight into the 2022 hiring landscape.

To coincide with the publication of the report, entitled ‘How to make the most of ‘The Great Resignation’,’ the recruitment firm has also released its 2022 salary calculator for Ireland. The interactive tool is available on its website.

Morgan McKinley included some predictions and analysis based on the Irish findings from the report. It broke its expectations for the Irish labour market in 2022 down over several sectors including technology, science, engineering and financial services.

Most in-demand STEM roles for 2022

For the tech and IT sectors, the firm predicts that data analysts, data engineers and data scientists will be in huge demand in Ireland this coming year. There will also be “strong demand” for DevOps talent, software engineers, cloud engineers and full stack engineers. This year will see more demand for cybersecurity professionals, with 7,000 people employed in the sector in Ireland already. Architects, risk analysts, compliance engineers, SOC analysts, security engineers and security consultants will be most popular. The cryptocurrencies sector, while not as well developed here as other tech sectors, will also create opportunities.

For the sciences sectors, Morgan McKinley predicts that Ireland will experience a surge in demand for gene therapy specialists in the pharma industry. Quality control and quality assurance personnel will be much sought after also. There may be less demand for quality engineers than previous years as biopharma takes more priority investments than medical devices.

Manufacturing, science and technology process sciences will be on the hunt for upstream and downstream scientists in the biologics processing and manufacturing side as they are in short supply here, according to Morgan McKinley.

People looking for roles in the engineering sector can expect to find opportunities working with companies on their ESG goals. Sustainability and energy engineers are highly sought after and roles in this area are a good way to start one’s engineering career, according to Morgan McKinley. Process engineers, maintenance engineers, continuous improvement specialists and mechanical engineers are needed too, with the increase in anti-viral tablet manufacturing in Ireland during the pandemic.

For the financial services sector, there will be a significant number of digital roles on offer over the coming year. In previous years, hiring predictions for the sector have been mixed.

‘Most demanding employment markets of our time’

The international survey involved 62 companies and 4,134 professionals across a range of industries. Morgan McKinley found that 82pc of people were considering a career move in the next six to 12 months and that salaries would increase by five to 10pc to reflect this.

Those who took part in the report’s survey were asked about flexible working, the hiring process and why they would consider leaving or joining a prospective employer.

The majority (68pc) said their organisation offered flexible working. Three quarters of respondents said they would leave an employer if they did not provide them with their preferred flexible working options.

One third of people said they wanted one or two days a week in the office, while 22pc said they would prefer two to three days. 29pc said they would prefer to work from home or remotely all the time. Currently, just 23pc of companies offer workers surveyed two to three days a week, however. The more common options out of the organisations featured in the report were working remotely all the time (29pc) and two to three days in the office (27pc).

Morgan McKinley’s global FDI director, Trayc Keevans, said the results indicated that 2022 would clearly be an employee’s market. “We’re currently seeing the most demanding employment markets of our time,” she said.

Retaining talent amid The Great Resignation

Keevans added that The Great Resignation trend, which started off in the US during the pandemic, appeared to be “still in full swing”.

“The experience of the sustained public health emergency has prompted countless workers to re-evaluate their work options, fine-tuning a better work-life balance and making deliberate choices as to where their careers are heading next. They’re looking for opportunities that give them the right pay, benefits, and work arrangements in the longer term. New opportunities opened up by remote work means workers can now access roles that previously were geographically off-limits.”

However, employers are having to contend with what Keevans called a “constant misalignment between the supply and demand for employees in the market” as a result.

“We’re experiencing the return of counter offers because there is a strong demand to fill roles… Organisations are under incredible pressure to adapt their leadership, management, and work practices. As a means of attracting talent, many employers are either adjusting their working models to hybrid or fully remote or offering higher wages in response.”

Retaining talent is also a challenge for employers in today’s jobs market. According to the survey findings, 40pc said their organisation was offering more flexible working options. Just under a third (31pc) said they were being offered professional development and upskilling opportunities, while 22pc said their organisation was investing in technology to make flexible working easier. Only 15pc said they were being offered re-skilling training. Significantly, the majority of people asked (45pc) replied that they didn’t know what their employer was doing to retain talent.

Keevans said she recommended that companies should “consider the building of a company culture that fosters inclusion and connection” where hybrid or remote working is part of their way of working.

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