Skills still in demand: What the jobs market might look like in 2024

The past year saw a shock to the tech sector, the start of mandatory gender pay gap reporting and questions about whether remote work is here to stay. As we look uncertainly into 2024, what lies ahead in the jobs market?

“Despite concerns of an economic slowdown, the jobs market is still quite buoyant,” says Mary Connaughton, director of CIPD Ireland. “Our HR Practices in Ireland research identified earlier in 2023 that 90 per cent of employers faced skill gaps and that problem is still there, even if demand has dropped slightly.”

Connaughton points out that with unemployment at 4.8 per cent, there are still jobs available across the board: IT, healthcare, science and engineering, and finance are all seeking new skilled recruits.

“There is still high demand for IT skills, particularly in areas in relation to cloud and artificial intelligence technologies,” she says. “The most consistent pattern is that those under the age of 25 with basic education tend to find it harder to get work.”

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Frank Farrelly, chief executive and co-founder of Sigmar Recruitment, agrees that any slowing down in the market is affecting junior positions first and foremost.

“Youth unemployment is relatively high and jobs at junior levels are scarcer,” says Farrelly. “This is usually a sign that companies and candidates are worried about hiring. Hiring is also more expensive now, with higher interest rates. Increases in Employer PRSI do not help either; future planned increases are especially unwelcome in uncertain times.”

However, Farrelly points out that “after a record 2022 for job vacancies, 2023 was always going to be down”.

“So, while employment reached record levels in summer 2023, vacancies fell and they continue to fall,” he adds. “Some of this reduction is due to reduced demand but some of it is because the churn level – staff leaving – has reduced. This is the norm in a jobs market where confidence levels are falling. Uncertainty kills activity.”

While we might see the job market down in areas such as IT and pharma, Farrelly underlines that employment in those sectors is “marginally down from record highs”.

Susan Kelly, partner at Odgers Berndtson, concurs. “Odgers’ view of the market is a reflection of the level we tend to operate at – which is normally board and executive level, C-suite one,” she says.”

“We have seen some peaks and troughs but over the course of the last year we have been kept as busy as previous years. There are obvious challenges across pharmaceutical and pure tech which hopefully should wash out over the coming 12 to 18 months.”

Another warning Farrelly gives is to take equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) considerations into account before making any blanket rules about return to office.

“The female participation rate, at over 70 per cent, has never been as high,” he says. “It is easier for candidates with disabilities to work from home and this is an area where Ireland has been behind the curve.”

Kelly says that although EDI is a constant on any board agenda and at senior level, and has been especially championed by HR, its importance “has waxed and waned, depending on the challenges associated with individual businesses”.

“As a priority, EDI has moved from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘need to’ or ‘must have’,” she says.

“That being said, if you are talking about challenges relating to supply chain, global events or Covid, it tends to move slightly down the food chain as a consideration.

“A recent report indicates that in many sectors EDI has been successfully implemented but in some of the more obvious sectors it is a struggle to meet the minimum requirements. This is down to a myriad of challenges not easily grappled with but the determination is still there and will continue to be.”

Creating opportunities for young people from disadvantaged areas should be a big focus over the coming year, and not just for Government – industry can play a part too.

Although not all of those involved in the riots were from disadvantaged backgrounds, one emerging divide in Ireland is on class grounds, says Farrelly. “Candidates from schools in the Deis [Delivering Equality in Schools] programme and underprivileged areas are underrepresented. While there is some good work going on it needs to be multiplied considerably to have a real societal impact.”

While he is concerned that EDI will suffer if budgets become tighter, Farrelly encourages employers to work to get diverse shortlists of candidates, target candidates who may not normally respond to job ads and ensure interviewers have received unconscious bias training.

Connaughton says that, in principle, EDI has become part of the culture in many organisations.

“There are great examples of companies who have changed their recruitment practices to make their jobs more accessible to those who traditionally found it harder to get jobs – foreign nationals, those with a disability, part-time workers – but a lot of organisations have not taken sufficient heed of this,” she says.

Gillian Harford, country executive for the 30% Club in Ireland, which advocates for greater gender diversity on boards and senior management teams, says organisations are starting to look beyond “diversity basics”.

“We are starting to see investors asking questions about gender balance at the top of the company – because that’s where key decisions are made,” she says.

Reflecting on the first year of mandatory gender pay gap reporting, Harford says it held few surprises.

“What was helpful is that the commentary really focused on gender pay gap rather than equal pay because they are quite different,” she says.

“And what was really important is the fact that it was spoken about quite publicly, and organisations with a hefty pay gap were very honest and authentic in their reporting.”