The 2025 headline: hiring stayed resilient, but pay felt tighter on the ground

Across Ireland in 2025, the labour market remained relatively strong overall, but many employers and candidates experienced a more cautious, value-driven hiring environment.

Two things can be true at the same time:

  • National averages show earnings rising (driven by sector mix, hours, and higher-paid segments).
  • Many individual salary offers felt flat (or down) in parts of tech and support functions, especially where there was more candidate supply, tighter budgets, or more contract-to-perm caution.

This review focuses on the Ireland-wide market, using reputable public sources.

What we learned in 2025 (Ireland-wide)

  1. Demand normalised after the post-pandemic surge. Hiring didn’t stop, but it became more selective.
  2. Experience requirements tightened. Employers leaned toward “ready-to-go” hires to reduce onboarding risk.
  3. Salary became more role-specific. Broad “tech salaries are up” statements didn’t match what many candidates saw in certain job families.
  4. Speed still won. Even in a cooler pocket of the market, the best candidates moved quickly.

Jobs added in 2025: what we can say credibly (and what we can’t)

A common request is: “How many jobs did Ireland add in IT, engineering, data centres, and alarm engineering in 2025?”

Reality: Ireland’s official statistics (CSO Labour Force Survey) report employment changes primarily at overall and broad-sector level, not neatly by niche sub-sectors like “data centres” or “alarm engineering.”

Ireland overall employment growth

CSO reported that the number of people in employment increased year-on-year to Q3 2025. We are seeing the same help wanted signs all over the place, in our local shops, bars and restaurants. Sadly, these jobs are low paying. In many circumstances, people need more than one job to even pay rent.

What this means for your sectors

  • IT is best approximated by CSO’s Information & Communication sector.
  • Engineering / data centres / alarm engineering are spread across Industry, Construction, and Services categories depending on the role (e.g., facilities, building services, commissioning, maintenance, security systems).

If you want a single “jobs added” number per niche sector, the most defensible approach is to use:

  • CSO sector employment trends (official backbone)
  • plus job postings data (e.g., Indeed Hiring Lab) to show demand direction

Hiring demand in 2025: job postings stayed above pre-pandemic, but cooled vs prior peaks

Indeed Hiring Lab’s Ireland-focused reporting indicated that Irish job postings remained elevated versus pre-pandemic levels. They also showed periods of stabilization and year-on-year declines, depending on the month or occupation. We see huge demand in some sectors and stagnant in areas like IT. We are seeing way more reluctance of IT Engineers to move job. The economic climate still remains ok, but most candidates seem to be expecting a downturn.

This aligns with what many employers felt:

  • hiring demand was not collapsing
  • but it was less frantic, with more scrutiny on cost and fit

Salaries 2024 → 2025: why candidates can feel “flat/down” even when averages rise

The official picture (earnings up on average)

Rather then me giving Elwood Robert’s figures, which is small in comparison to the Wider Market. The CSO earnings data shows average earnings rising year-on-year.

Examples from CSO Earnings & Labour Costs releases:

  • Average weekly earnings (Q1 2025): €1,026.20, up 5.6% from €972.20 in Q1 2024.
  • Average weekly earnings (Q3 2025): €1,003.81, up 4.9% from €956.56 in Q3 2024.

Why your lived experience can still be “no rises” or “shrinking offers”

Even with rising averages, salaries in specific recruitment markets can stagnate or fall due to:

  • Role mix effects: growth in higher-paid segments can lift averages while other roles stay flat.
  • Hours and overtime changes: weekly earnings can move even if base salaries don’t.
  • Cooling in parts of tech: more applicants per role can reduce the need for aggressive bidding.
  • More cautious offers: employers anchoring offers to internal parity and retention budgets.

Market commentary supporting “modest/flat” pay dynamics

Recruitment salary guides and market commentary for Ireland in 2025 indicated modest pay increases. These increases were not broad-based jumps and often in the low single digits. This matches the “flat” feeling many candidates reported. Some industries like Alarms, Engineering have grown quite significantly due to poor demand. IT is holding steady.

Our Key Sector notes:

IT / Tech

  • 2025 continued the shift toward selective hiring.
  • Stronger demand persisted in areas tied to risk and resilience. These areas include security, infrastructure, and certain cloud/ops skillsets. Meanwhile, other areas faced more competition.

Engineering (Electrical/Mechanical/Building Services)

  • Continued demand, often driven by project pipelines and infrastructure needs. We see huge job demand from the Data Centers. But with housing shortages in Ireland and all over the world. Engineers remain in high demand.
  • Scarcity in experienced talent tends to keep pay firmer here than in oversupplied job families.

Data centres

  • Ireland’s data centre ecosystem continued to need critical-environment skills (operations, facilities, maintenance, shift coverage).
  • Hiring often remains steady because up time and compliance are non-negotiable.
  • Businesses in the Data Center sector, can’t get the Data Centers built fast enough.
  • Data Centers are moving away from Ireland due to both power demand and political pressure. Data Centers brings so much more to an economy then anyone things. The product (Data) is invisible, but highly lucrative.
  • Data Centers will continue to expand all over the world. We will see new Data Centers coming online in the US. Northern Virginia, Kentucky Dallas, Phoenix, and Atlanta. In Europe, we see expansions in the UK, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris. There are also key growth areas in Spain and the Nordics. The Asia-Pacific region, such as Tokyo, Sydney, and Singapore’s nearby areas in Malaysia and Indonesia are also growing fast.

Alarm engineering (Fire & Security)

  • Demand is closely tied to construction activity, retrofits, compliance, and service/maintenance backlogs.
  • Alarm Engineers are reluctant to move role mainly due to the complex nature of their work. Most see moving as a burden, even if it means a 20% pay increase.
  • Pay tends to be most competitive for proven commissioning, fault-finding, and standards knowledge.

What should 2026 bring? (practical outlook)

For 2026 in Ireland, expect:

  • More salary transparency (bands earlier in process)
  • More scrutiny on total comp (pension, allowances, overtime, on-call, shift premiums)
  • Continued selectivity in tech with pockets of scarcity
  • Strong ongoing demand in critical infrastructure (engineering + facilities + safety/compliance-driven roles)

FAQ of 2025

  • Are salaries going up in Ireland in 2025?
  • Why do salaries feel flat in tech despite positive national earnings data?
  • What roles are most in demand in Ireland in 2025?
  • What is the outlook for hiring in Ireland in 2026?