Is it real the shortage of workers in Ireland?

jj_24

Hi, there!

Me and my husband are relocating to Ireland next November. I'm UX designer and he is Data scientist.

Well, we had seen that Tech companies used to struggle to find qualified workers. But we've seen some posts on Facebook of EU citizens (as we are) applying for 3 to 6 months and not receiving an offer.

Well, I'd like yo hear your opinion about the hiring process at the moment.

We both are mid level with 3 yoe.

Thanks for sharing your point of view.

Ok, I’m not a jobseeker, I’m a retired Irish public servant living in Dublin, so any of my commentary is very much from a bystander point of view. There will be plenty here to give you real advice.

I presume you have done your research about the housing situation in Ireland, most especially in Dublin, where it is extremely difficult to find somewhere to rent and duly expensive to buy your own place. Of course as you both work in tech it should theoretically be feasible to locate anywhere, or any town with good links to cities where most of the tech companies are, ie Dublin & Cork, eg if they want you to appear in person at the office some of the time.

Re the jobs scene in Ireland, my observations are that the constant shortages tend to be mostly in people-facing, frontline roles, from serving in the hospitality industry, nursing, bus drivers, and generally speaking, jobs where you have to turn up at a place of work and move about.

Re tech jobs, I’m no expert (I’m only a tech hobbyist) but I’ve known people to be finding it very difficult to get any suitable work. Some are doing fine, seek & get new positions, but it’s not a given any more as far as I can make out. Data scientists/engineers do seem to be in some demand though, and I do see ads in LinkedIn for UX roles. Goodness knows we all need more good UX people, but do t let me go on a rant!

My advice would be to imagine yourselves actually trying to apply for somewhere to live in Ireland, make a tentative application to get a feel for the prices, demand & availability… though it’s hard to gauge that by looking around alone, not until you make an attempt to get into the application process.

Try LinkedIn searches filtering for Ireland and see what comes up in your areas of expertise, are they remote/onsite/hybrid, qualification & experience requirements, how many others are applying etc. You’ll get a feel for the jobs/living scene in Ireland.

Cost of living in Ireland is quite considerable nowadays. An example of hotel accommodation. I booked a hotel for a conference in the midlands modest town of Athlone, two nights for myself was €512. One of my favourite European countries is Norway, but I’ve always found it extremely expensive. However I de used to check out the exact price of a hotel I know in a prime spot in Bergen for same nights. Circa €420 or cheaper, and you get an evening meal and afternoon coffee & waffles thrown in as bonuses, making for a very affordable stay in the beautiful city of Bergen. So to me now, Norway is looking a very viably affordable place for further travel.

Anyway best of luck in your endeavours, hope you do come to live here!

jj_24

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and such a detailed and kind comment.

We've seen the house crisis, but we're really comfortable to commute for 1 or 1:30 hours as we're acquainted to it (living in a city of 10 million people currently).

Well, if tech jobs are not easy to find. My plan B was to apply for public "administrative" jobs, considering I have a degree in business and public business, and have already worked in public sector for about 5 years.

Do you know how hard is to get an offer in public sector? In HSE for example?

I'm completely opened to work anytime, if on weekends in my first years of Ireland.

rowantree18

Rents are not much cheaper outside Dublin within 1 - 2 hours commute.

The average price for a 2 bed apartment is 2200e. Some are poor quality.

The competition to find a property is amazing. Ireland has over 80k refugees from Ukraine and no apartments. We have many other foreign workers too.

Research the housing market carefully!

I believe there is quite some competition for public sector jobs these times, but I am no expert and better answered by others. I’m pretty sure there may be roles in business admin in private companies.

Jim_Hodge

There is demand for many occupations but, unfortunately, they're not in Tech or Public Admin at the moment. Health, haulage, & hospitality are the big three. You'd need to ensure employment and potential accommodation before making the move, to be honest.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121091166#Comment_121091166

You are very right there about the three H’s tbh. I remember somebody making a post about a niche area of tech a couple of years back, I quote “I’ll never be out of a job”. Stuck with me for the arrogance of the assertion. Guess what now. As my late father wisely said “there’s none of us indispensable”.

I suspect there’s more jobs in AI development atm, that’s where it’s at, and that’s where I very much suspect it’s going from here on.

Nigel Fairservice

The process of getting a public sector job here can be very drawn out. They are competition based and you are placed on a panel. If successful at all stages, you could be starting work up to 2 years after initially applying the the job.

Housing (I'm living over an hour outside Dublin and there's only 3 properties to rent in town from what I can see), health and schools all seem to be under pressure. Cost of living is very high.