Salary Guide 2011

Salary levels for newly-recruited professionals stabilised last year, with some niche positions where recruits are in short supply seeing increases of 20 per cent, according to the Annual Salary Guide compiled by the leading recruiting expert, Hays.

Request your copy of the 2011 Hays Salary Guide

For the purposes of the study Hays examined the salaries and terms and conditions across 934 positions in seven key sectors: Accounting & Finance, IT, Banking, Financial Services, HR, Construction & Property, Insurance. Nearly all sectors have seen salaries level out after dropping by as much as 30 per cent in 2009.

"It’s great to not only see salary rates a lot steadier this year, but increases starting to emerge. This is generally being reflected in the level of hiring going on as well." says Richard Eardley, Managing Director of Hays in Ireland.

"This is due in no small part to the multinationals present in Ireland. They are currently maintaining the economy and the good news is that we continue to attract investment so there is demand across a wide range of disciplines" added Eardley.

Accountancy & Finance - niche skills paying dividends

Accountancy candidates with more than one language skills, specifically German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian and Nordic languages are attracting starting salaries which have increased by as much as 15 per cent on 2009. An accounts receivable specialist in Cork with no experience but a 2nd language can command a salary of €26,000 versus €24,000 without a language. This follows a year in which salary levels for most finance professionals decreased. The good news for the accountancy sector across the board is that general salary levels have now stabilised.

After two years of cutbacks and little hiring activity, the professional practices have started to recruit again, notably the Big Four and larger organisations. There is a requirement for candidates with international audit experience, financial services and corporate recovery. Internal auditors are also in demand in the larger commercial businesses.

Smaller practices are still finding it difficult, as is the SME sector for accountants, whilst public sector salaries are now frozen by the Croke Park Agreement.

IT - Robust performance with an emphasis on cost-cutting and certain languages

This was the most robust sector in the economy last year with new IT-centric organisations choosing Ireland as their European headquarters and existing companies expanding within the State.

Project work was most prevalent in the financial-services and public-services sectors. Contractors with expertise in Java, C# and .net on the development side and VMWare, Unix and SAN Specialists on the infrastructure side, are all highly sought after. In the niche end a Virtualisation Network Manager on contract went from €350 per day in 2009 to €385 in 2010.

For permanent employees Java is still in demand, as is C#. Permanent recruiters value industry experience as much as skills and any individuals with financial-services,

FMCG, technology and public-sector backgrounds will find options in the market.

Saving money is currently foremost in many companies minds so candidates with experience of technologies that cut costs, such as cloud computing, virtualisation CRM/ERP and automation, will command premium salaries. Nordic languages, German and Dutch are also in demand.

Banking – funds is buoyant

The state of the banking industry has been much publicised with job losses and pay and bonus freezes. However the funds industry in Ireland saw a resurgence in the second half of the year with most fund operations recruiting staff again.

There has been a spike in the demand for Implementation Managers, Business Change Managers, Business Analysts and Project Managers. The average salary for a Settlements Administrator saw an increase from €28,000 in 2009 to €29,000 in 2010, however most salary levels remain flat. We are also seeing continued investment in Ireland from international fund companies so the market is buoyant.

Financial Services – re-focus on life, pension and investment products

Similar to banking, the financial services industry bore the brunt of 2010. Subsequently a number of businesses have undertaken measures to re-focus their efforts towards Life, Pension and Investment products, mainly across individual and High-Net-Worth clients. This has resulted in a positive impact on the amount of sales roles. Specific skill sets are still in demand – examples being DC Pension Consultant, Product Development Specialist and Actuary. There is also a healthy demand for candidates with knowledge of cross-border life products or language skills.

Insurance - demand in risk, compliance and underwriting

The past year has been a challenge for the industry but late 2010 saw an increased level of activity. International insurance companies and niche re-insurers have set up operations in Dublin and there has been an overall increase in confidence in the market again. There is a demand for experienced professionals in the areas of Risk, Compliance and Underwriting at a senior level and Client Management. We have also had a notable increase in the number of contract/temporary roles within Insurance.

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of claims handlers seeking work in the market place we have seen a drop of 10-15 per cent in annual salary as clients have the power of choice. For a Claims Handler with 1-3 years experience their salary has reduced from €28,000 to €25,000.

Office Support – northern European language skills at a premium

2010 was a solid year for PA, secretarial, administration and customer service recruitment, particularly in the latter half. The most active sectors for these positions were IT, pharmaceutical and shared services, where salaries have largely held throughout the recession and hiring has continued.

Candidates with an EU language were able to demand higher salaries. Languages in demand include German, Dutch and any Nordic language, with premiums of up to 20 per cent on those skills and relocation packages now the norm. For example a Team Leader with an EU language in Limerick can command €27,000 or €28,000 if that language is German, Dutch or Scandinavian.

Construction and Property – commercial roles are still in demand

Output from the construction industry continued to decline in 2010 resulting in little marked improvement in the remuneration of construction professionals. However, demand remained for commercially astute business development managers, bid managers, commercial managers and procurement specialists who typically commanded little or no drop in salary. For example a Senior M&E estimator in Dublin retained their salary level from 2009 of €65,000.

Energy is the buoyant sector with continued investment seeing a requirement for skills in this area.

HR – demand increasing

Activity in HR was largely restricted to more senior roles in 2010. However, 2011 has started more positively. As more employers are hiring again there is increased demand at lower levels and in specific disciplines such as recruitment and training. Again the Shared Service Sector is most buoyant.

For further information about Hays visit www.hays.ie

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Note to editor:

About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is the leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Australia and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments.

As at 30 June 2010, the Group employed 6,845 staff operating from 270 offices in 28 countries across 17 specialisms.

For the year ended 30 June 2010:

• the Group reported net fees of £557.7 million and operating profit of £80.5 million;

•  the Group placed around 50,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 180,000 people into temporary assignments;

• 26% of Group net fees were generated in Asia Pacific, 30% in Continental Europe & RoW and 44% in the United Kingdom & Ireland

•  the temporary placement business represented 58% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 42% of net fees;

• Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE and the United Kingdom.

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