A NEW REPORT suggests that Brexit could provide an employment boom in financial services here.
The Morgan McKinley employment monitor for February, released today, has found that “large Asian-headquartered investment banks with operations in the UK, unhappy with Brexit, are conducting contingency planning and considering the talent that Ireland has to offer for their operations should they decide to relocate”.
The report also finds that things are definitely looking up when it comes to parity between rural and urban jobs in Ireland.
Regarding the Brexit fallout with respect to the Asian banks, their relocation or otherwise “remains to be seen” according to Morgan McKinley’s director of inward investment Trayc Keevans.
“But Ireland’s financial services talent pool is well positioned to meet their requirements if they do decide to locate here,” Keevans said.
Brain drain reversed?
Regarding the rural-urban divide, Keevan says “the dynamic in the IT sector between Irish headquartered companies and US multinational companies has shifted”.
In the past, it was difficult for indigenous Irish SMEs to compete with larger multinational companies who could offer better salaries, conditions and access to cutting edge technology. But now we are beginning to see a more level playing field.
One in two professional positions that became available in January represented opportunities in the regions as opposed to in Irish cities suggesting a balance being reached as regards the city brain drain. This has mainly been due, according to the report, to the likes of finance professionals being “willing to relocate outside Dublin”.
“The overseas technology expansion and hiring plans of US companies have also slowed down as companies wait to see what restrictions if any that the new President of the United States will place on companies holding intellectual property overseas,” said Keevans.
Again this has allowed Irish companies well placed to compete for available talent to reap the benefits.
Vacancies
Irish job vacancies in general saw a massive 33% increase month-on-month in January to 11,850. This is actually a 10% decrease on the number of roles available in January 2016 however.
The first month of the year is generally seen to be good time to move jobs, with the ‘new year, new start’ philosophy coming to the fore.
That has most certainly been the case this year, with Morgan McKinley recording a 56% increase in professionals seeking new jobs here month-on-month.
Research and development engineer is the most in-demand profession at present due to further investment in innovation hubs around the country.
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