Digital skills now make up nearly half of skills added by LinkedIn members in Ireland, an increase of just under a fifth (19%) since 2019 and 30% since 2015, according to IDA Ireland's later Labour Market Pulse.

The study, published in partnership with Microsoft and LinkedIn and based on analysis of the skills added by the more than 2m LinkedIn members in Ireland over the past six years, shows the rising importance of digital skills in the workforce.

Conversely, non-digital skills' share of skills added by members has fallen by almost 15% since 2019 and 25% since 2015, with workers in sectors such as construction, transportation & logistics, healthcare, corporate services and finance increasingly likely to opt to improve their digital skills, rather than non-digital skills.

The analysis shows that customs regulation was the top skill added by members in the transport & logistics sector in 2021, highlighting the impact of Brexit, while regulatory compliance, GDPR and KYC were among the top 10 skills added by financial services employees.

In media & communications sector, search engine marketing, social marketing and email marketing were among the top skills added, while in software & IT, Jira, Kubernetes and Python were favoured over more traditional skills such as SQL, JavaScript and software evelopment

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Overall, digital literacy (44%), data science (24%) and development tools (16%) were among the most popular digital skill groups added on LinkedIn last year.

"The growth in the share of digital skills added by LinkedIn members and concurrent drop in the share of non-digital skills points to the ever-accelerating digital transformation of our economy and society and the need for today’s workforce to keep pace with this acceleration," said James O'Connor, Microsoft Ireland site lead.

“While people working in Software and IT services added the greatest share of digital skills in 2021, we are increasingly seeing a growth in the need for digital skills among traditionally non-technology sectors, including education, finance, media, construction and retail.

"This highlights, more than ever, the importance of external learning pathways and employer supports to empower people – irrespective of age, background or experience – with the skills to participate fully in Ireland’s digital economy.”

The report also supports evidence of a labour market recovery in the first quarter of 2022, with hiring rates for the first five months of the year up 27% on the same period in 2019 despite geopolitical disruption, Covid, and inflationary and supply chain pressures.

Almost a fifth (19.2%) of job postings in April offered candidates the ability to work from home, up 61% year-on-year, meaning Ireland has a higher proportion of remote roles than the other six markets monitored by LinkedIn.

Ireland opened up a clear lead on countries such as the UK (13.7%), the UAE (12.4%), and Germany (11.8%). Ireland registered the highest level of employed people who usually work from home in the EU last year at 32%.

"Our data shows that hybrid working continues to be a significant factor in attracting talent to organisations, which in turn has led to an evolution in how we collaborate, and a natural uptake in the adoption of digital skills and tools," said Sharon McCooey, head of LinkedIn Ireland.

“This evolution in skills across the Irish workforce is not simply being driven by the pandemic, as a range of other factors like Brexit and increased regulation has seen many professionals upskill in areas like customs regulation, Know Your Customer and GDPR according to insights gleaned from LinkedIn’s 2+ million Irish membership base.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index found that many Irish hybrid employees are considering a switch to fully remote work model (20%) and more remote employees are considering a switch to hybrid work model (42%) over the next year.  

The research emphasises what is most important to employees in their work, other than pay, with positive work culture coming out on top (59%), followed by flexible work hours (50%) and benefits that promote positive health and wellbeing (43%).

(Pic: Getty Images)