Measuring changing competency requirements in Irish digital occupations: Evidence from online job vacancies

This research was funded by the Irish Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). The study focuses on labour market demand for key digitally intensive occupations in Ireland, employing a large-scale international vacancy dataset to analyse changing competency requirements. It is important to note that the scope of this study is focused on core ICT professionals and roles where advanced digital skills are the primary function of the job (such as software developers, network engineers and ICT technicians), rather than general knowledge workers who may use digital tools. 

Using a large-scale international dataset of online job vacancies, we examine how employer competency requirements in these roles evolved between 2021 and 2024. Specifically, we investigate how the demand for technical competencies, both basic and specialised, has been changing between 2021 and 2024, a period that has been associated with the emergence of more rapid artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in the workplace. To provide international context, we benchmark Ireland's trends against the European Union (EU-27) average. 

Our analysis categorises shifts in key digital skills demand into three distinct areas: 

• Stable skills: Competencies that remained in consistently high demand in both 2021 and 2024; 

• Emerging skills: Competencies that were rarely required in 2021 but rose in importance by 2024; 

• Declining skills: Competencies that were highly sought after in 2021 but experienced a marked drop in employer demand in 2024.