More Than Half of US Companies Plan to Increase Irish Headcount in the Next Year

56 percent of respondents to AmCham’s latest FDI Insights Survey said they expect the number of employees in their Irish operations to increase over the next 12 months, while 35 percent expect to maintain current numbers.

This comes as 69 percent of respondents said the number of employees in the Irish operations had increased over the previous 12 months. 

Key Challenges; Housing, Cost Competitiveness, Personal Tax and Skills Shortage

Housing is viewed as the top challenge by members with 49 percent of respondents saying it is the most important challenge for Ireland to overcome for their company to invest and expand in Ireland. 98 percent of members said the availability of residential accommodation is challenging for staff in their business operations in Ireland, with 73 percent saying it is either extremely or very challenging.  However, this was a slight improvement on the same survey conducted a year ago where 100 percent said it was challenging and 86 percent said it was extremely or very challenging.

When looking at the biggest challenges for Ireland to overcome, cost competitiveness and personal tax competitiveness came in joint second with 10 percent of respondents choosing each of these areas. This was followed by skills shortage, with 8 percent of respondents saying this is the biggest challenge for the future expansion of their company in Ireland.

Talent

All of the respondents said certainty with regard to the availability of highly skilled talent is important to maintaining FDI employment in Ireland. 59 percent of respondents said their organisation is currently experiencing a skills gap in Ireland, however this was a decrease of 10 percent on the same survey last year. The biggest skills gap identified is in engineering, with 36 percent of members saying this is their number one gap. 24 percent of respondents said their biggest skills gap was in digital and data while 11 percent said cyber.

Reform of the Planning System

94% percent of respondents said reform of the planning system is important to provide certainty of process and timeframe for their business’ growth and expansion in Ireland.  50 percent of members said that Ireland’s current planning system does not provide the certainty of process and timeframe necessary for their businesses growth and expansion in Ireland.

Education and Training

In the last 12 months, 64% of respondents said they had collaborated with a higher education institution, 36% with a research centre, 39% with an Irish SME and 48% with another US multinational.  Asked how Ireland’s education system needs to change, 43% said they would like to see more collaboration between 3rd level institutions and industry, 39% would like more focus on apprenticeships and in house training, 8% said more third level places are needed, with the same percentage looking for increased funding supports for RD&I, including researchers.