Gairmeacha Díolacháin

11.2% of Ireland’s workforce are employed in sales and customer services, around 226,000 people. Of this, 127,000 are sales assistants. Employment in the area is stable, growing by a 0.8% average annually. High level roles such as advertising, marketing & sales directors saw strong growth between 2011 and 2016 as did customer service occupations and sales supervisors.

Figure 1: Data from National Skills Bulletin, 2017. SOLAS Skills and Labour Market Research Unit

Shortages were identified for marketing experts and associate professional sales and customer service role, especially those with skills in technical sales, vendor management and/or customer relationship management. Multilingual skills are also in demand in the sector.

Following from the National Skills Bulletin, 2017
Key points for selected Sales and Customer Service Occupations

• In 2016, there were approximately 226,000 persons employed in sales and customer service occupations, representing 11.2% of Ireland’s workforce
• There were 127,000 persons employed as sales assistants ─ the largest workforce nationally
• Between 2011 and 2016, overall employment increased very modestly (by 0.8% on average annually, compared to 1.8% nationally); the strongest growth rates were observed for advertising, marketing & sales directors (7.8% on average annually), sales supervisors (6.3% on average annually), and customer service occupations (5.9% on average annually); in contrast, the strongest rate of decline was observed for sales related occupations (3.9% on average annually)
• Over the five-year period, employment increased by approximately 9,000 persons, with the largest absolute increases observed for customer service occupations (5,800 persons), sales accounts & business development managers, and advertising, marketing & sales directors (each by approximately 2,000 persons); meanwhile, the largest absolute decreases were observed for sales assistants, and sales related occupations (each by approximately 2,000 persons)
• Between 2015 and 2016, overall employment expanded by 1.5% (compared to 2.9% nationally), or 3,500 persons; the largest absolute increase was observed for sales assistants, and customer service occupations (each by 1,600 persons); while the largest decrease was observed for estate & conference managers, and sales related occupations (each by approximately 1,500 persons)
• The age profile of employed sales assistants was the youngest, with 30% aged 15-24  
• The share employed in most sales and customer service occupations with third level qualifications was higher than the national average; the only exceptions were for sales assistants, sales related occupations, and sales supervisors (with below average shares), and business sales executives (similar to the national average) 
• Two thirds of the workforce of both sales assistants, and marketing associate professionals were female, the highest share among the selected occupations
• Over a half (53%) of all employed sales assistants worked part-time ─ one of the highest shares among all occupations in the national workforce 
• Two fifths of employed sales supervisors were non-Irish nationals (over double the national average).

Shortage Indicators

There were 55,000 recent new hires in 2016 for the selected sales and customer services roles representing 17% of total new hires. With employment growth of 3,300 over the same time period, the high volume of vacancy notifications that occurred related primarily to frequent changes of employer and replacement of those in sales-related occupations who have exited to inactivity.

Sales assistants: sales assistants account for the bulk of those employed in sales-related occupations; employment of many sales assistants is casual in nature: over half of employment is part-time, almost a third are aged less than 25, and there is a large volume of transitions in all directions (between employment, unemployment, economic inactivity (mostly study), as well as between and within occupations) and a simultaneous presence of a large number of job seekers (over 7,000) and vacancy notifications. While the transitory nature of employment for sales assistants may not represent an issue for employers, sourcing for management roles in retail may be a greater challenge; however, the availability of business graduates is likely to help in meeting employer requirements in this regard. 

Associate professional sales and customer service roles: those employed as sales assistants work primarily in the wholesale and retail sector, whereas business sales executives and those in customer service occupations are employed across a range of sectors including finance, IT and industry, in addition to wholesale and retail. Although there are no shortages of sales assistants, shortages of the following sales and customer care skills continue to persist: ▪ technical sales (e.g. software B2B and SaaS products) ▪ vendor managers/CRM roles with European languages (Nordic, Dutch and German).

Marketing experts: despite the third level graduate output of 1,500 persons from sales and marketing courses at levels 6 and above (HEA and non-HEA sectors), a shortage of marketing experts required to lead product/brand management and business development (with languages) continues to exist.