Areas where skills shortages are most acute in Ireland, namely life sciences, IT and engineering, could see salary increases of up to 20pc this year, according to a new report.

2016 will be a good year for those lucky few who find themselves paddling in a severely underpopulated labour pool, it seems, with Morgan McKinley’s salary report for this year highlighting many areas of STEM that are likely to see salaries rise.

The talent demand will be most felt in IT, finance, risk, life sciences, pharma and engineering, with pay rises around the 10pc mark for many roles, rising to 20pc in areas with acute shortages within these fields.

Life sciences, it seems, is profiting from both returning Irish nationals and attracting scientists from abroad.

IT jobs in Ireland

As reported by many analysts late last year, Morgan McKinley claims big data will remain a major growth area as companies seek to exploit their information assets.

C#, Java and Python were the most in-demand programming languages in 2015, according to the report, with cybersecurity specialists and mobile developers in for a 2016 full of job offers, it seems.

Yesterday, we wrote of Abrivio’s report, which noted QA testers, Java, .Net, UI, Ruby, PHP and C++ as areas in demand this year, so, it appears, programmers are kings of the jobs market in 2016.

“More generally, candidates with strong technical skills across all disciplines are becoming the norm as technology infiltrates all sectors,” explained Karen O’Flaherty, COO of Morgan McKinley.

“We are also seeing a narrowing of gender gaps, especially in the area of HR, where more males are entering the profession and in the life science and engineering areas as more females are qualifying and securing roles.

“We expect to see the continued return of expatriates this year as professionals who left return with young families and are more confident of securing employment.

“We are optimistic for 2016, with all indicators suggesting it will be another strong year for job creation and growth.”

The industries that are most lacking in workers are those that have expanded significantly in recent years, with the ability to attract staff from elsewhere in the EU – and indeed beyond – seemingly almost as important as a low corporation tax to many international employers.

Well, that and programmers.

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