Irish tech employers are increasingly relying on foreign jobseekers to fill roles in the tech sector, according to data from Indeed.

The data found that 25% of clicks on tech jobs in Ireland came from abroad in 2018, an increase from 17% in the previous year.

Tech roles account for a substantial proportion of overall job postings on Indeed locally. Approximately 12% of the total number of jobs posted on the site in Ireland in 2018 were in the tech space, with jobs such as software engineer, software architect and technical support specialist among those with the most openings.

“Considering only 11% of the clicks on a typical job posting on Indeed’s Ireland site come from outside the country, to see 25% of clicks on tech roles coming from abroad reflects the shortage of labour facing tech employers in Ireland,” Indeed economist Pawel Adrjan said.

Indeed’s data also found that much of the growth in foreign jobseeker interest has come from outside of the EU. Five years ago, 7% of jobseeker interest in tech roles came from outside the EU while the figure now stands at 13%. In contrast, the contribution of jobseekers for similar roles from the UK (6%) and the rest of the EU (7%) has remained relatively stable.

Adrjan commented, “Migration flows have always been a feature of the Irish labour market and clicks from abroad can be a good indicator of future migration intentions. With unemployment falling below 5% in today’s competitive labour market, employers in many sectors depend increasingly on inward migration to increase their workforce.”