As 2019 draws to a close, employers and employees alike will be wondering what’s in store for them in the year ahead. How will Brexit affect my business? How likely am I to get a pay rise? What are the major trends I need to think about in my industry?
We wanted to answer these questions with the RECRUITERS 2020 Salary Predictions Guide. We looked beyond the CSO average salary inflation of around 3.5%, which pertains to all roles in Ireland, and focused on the roles in which we specialise to predict how salaries will change in the new year.
“There has been great uncertainty surrounding Brexit for more than three years now and the markets do not respond well to uncertainty,” said Brian McFadden, client services director. “However, from our view of the market in Ireland, demand for talent remains strong and is driven by growth within Ireland’s export-led economy.”
Using our expert knowledge and our own data from the past year, we expect salary increases across all functions we specialise in, with software engineering in particular soaring to 12% inflation. This phenomenal increase is due, not only to the ever-increasing demand, but also to the growing trend of software engineers moving into the contracting space, leaving an even larger talent gap in the permanent market. We’re seeing a similar trend happening in other high-tech roles such as cloud or infrastructure architects and expect salaries in the high-tech space to increase by 8% on average.
Download 2020 Salary Predictions Guide
As part of the guide, we also took the temperature of professionals working across all levels and sectors in which we recruit with our 2020 Business Outlook Survey, which was sent to more than 1,000 professionals. We asked about their feelings on Brexit, whether or not they believe salaries in their department will go up in 2020, and what they believe the biggest staff retention tool is.
Overall, 94% of respondents predict an increase in salaries at their businesses in 2020 despite more than 88% of respondents predicting that Brexit will have some impact on the growth of their business in 2020.
In terms of whether or not their individual departments can expect salary increases, IT and PMO professionals were the most hopeful, with almost 90% expecting pay rises within their department. Sales professionals were the least optimistic, with only 15% of respondents believing salaries in their department will increase. However, based on our own expert knowledge, we believe the way in which the sales function is changing and its need for varying experience means a well-rounded candidate can command a more lucrative salary.
To find out more about our salary predictions for 2020, download our 2020 Salary Predictions Guide here.
Andrew Sheehan is the marketing manager at RECRUITERS
Hot air balloon photo by Kupono Kuwamura on Unsplash
