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Engineering employment is centred on two sectors, manufacturing and architectural/engineering activities, with over 52% of engineering employment being in manufacturing alone. Employment growth in engineering occupations is the highest of all occupational areas across the economy, an annual average of 8.2% between 2011 and 2016 providing an additional 10,000 jobs. There are strong signs of this trend continuing, with the growth rate between 2015 and 2016 being 14%.
Figure 1: Data from National Skills Bulletin, 2017. SOLAS Skills and Labour Market Research Unit.
The National Skills Bulletin 2017 identified a wide range of engineering and technician occupations related to manufacturing that are in demand. For example, between 2011 and 2016 the employment growth rate in process, production and QA technicians was 16% on average annually and for electrical/electronic engineers it was 3.5%, indicating strong ongoing prospects for suitably skilled engineers and engineering technicians.
Following from the National Skills Bulletin, 2017
Key points for selected engineering occupations
Shortage Indicators
Employment has been growing strongly in the selected engineering occupations in recent years. Over a half of those were working in the manufacturing sector, where employment growth in high-tech and medium high-tech manufacturing has been particularly strongly over the most recent five-year period. Job announcements in the media in 2016 were most frequent in industry, primarily in the manufacture of medical devices, biotech, pharmaceutical, food/beverages and machinery/equipment with engineering roles announced including in R&D design, quality control and process engineers along with engineering technicians involved in testing.
Replacement demand in these occupations tends to be low, primarily due to a younger age cohort than the national average; turnover, however, is above average, particularly in relation to electrical and quality control engineers along with quality assurance technicians. Expansion demand, combined with a high level of movement between employers, is accounting for frequent vacancy notifications primarily for process, quality and project engineers. There were approximately 2,100 recent new hires in 2016 for professional engineers and a further 2,300 for technicians (two thirds of all engineering new hires held a third level honours degree or higher).
Employers are competing internationally for some niche engineering roles (primarily process and equipment engineers but also automation, project and mechanical engineers) with 434 new employment permits issued in 2016 for professionals in both industry and the ICT sector.
The number of third level engineering graduates is estimated at 5,000, more than half of which were at NFQ level 8 or higher; graduate output has been increasing in recent years (up by more than a half since 2010). There are also two new NFQ level 7 apprenticeships in industrial electrical engineering and polymer processing technology. In addition, in April 2017, there were over 600 engineers (over half of whom held at least a degree-level (NFQ 7) qualification) and almost 700 engineering technicians (a third of whom held at least a degree-level (NFQ 7) qualification) who were job ready job seekers.
The demand for engineers, typically for roles in pharmaceutical and medical devices manufacturing, relates largely to those with significant experience (at least five years) in industry specific settings. Shortages include
There also appears to be an issue with geographical mobility and the ability to attract candidates to certain locations.