Political influence on economies, Dublin losing its charm, Trump’s ‘China Syndrome’ the need for a new social contract and building a personal online brand are some of the trends spotlighted in the 2019 Abrivia Recruitment/TCD Salary, Employment and Economic Trends Survey.
Undertaken in partnership with Trinity Business School at Trinity College Dublin, the opinions of 260 firms and over 1200 employees from multiple business sectors and disciplines were sought - ICT, Human Resources, Accountancy & Finance, Architecture/Construction, Insurance, Legal, Sales & Marketing, Office Support and Call Centre/Customer Support.
Survey analysis and economic commentary were provided by Dr Charles Larkin, assistant professor and research fellow and Dr Na Fu, associate professor in human resource management, Trinity Business School.
Donal O’Brien, managing director of Dublin firm Abrivia Recruitment, said, “In marked contrast to when we first began this survey, the numbers in temporary or contract work has waned considerably - 85% of those surveyed are now in permanent positions and 86% of companies plan to hire new staff in 2019, as opposed to only 51% in 2014.”
“The good news for employees is that 90% of firms surveyed intend to increase salaries in 2019 and the same percentage intend to increase salaries up to 5% year-on-year. 78% of firms surveyed intend to pay a bonus in 2019, mainly as a reward for staff effort.”
The survey revealed that living in Dublin appears to be losing its charm as most employees surveyed were willing to take a pay cut to move out of the city. “44.5% are willing to take a cut of up to 10% in their salary with almost a tenth willing to take a further drop. 53% say they would need a pay increase of 20% or more to move to the capital and almost a fifth flatly refused to consider a move at all,” said Donal O’Brien.
Dr Charles Larkin of Trinity Business School said that economics has tended to ignore the political system, but the primary lesson of the past year is that politics does matter. The stress that is being placed on the Irish economy is largely external and produced by the economics of political turbulence from Washington, London and Brussels.
Charles said, “What’s also becoming evident is that the idea of “the British are coming” has been a myth, there has been no mass relocation of legal and financial services. The advantages afforded Ireland as the last English-speaking country and a Common Law country are overblown. It is time that the Taoiseach begin the process of ensuring that this country is supported during and after the Hard Brexit turbulence.”
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Click here to download a copy of the Survey.
07/01/2019