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"As our dependence on data and digital infrastructure grows, so too does our need for the people who make the magic happen. "
One universal challenge within the global data centre industry is managing resources, in particular attracting, retaining and developing talent. In fact, the Uptime Institute predicts a net staff growth of more than 300,000 global data centre jobs by 2025. That’s why this September Host in Ireland is celebrating Talent Month!
We know from our interactions with our members the data centre ecosystem in Ireland is filled with smart, creative, funny people who have big ideas and execute on them brilliantly. It doesn’t matter if they are the most junior member of the marketing team or a senior mechanical engineer or the executive of the company, they are all working together to make sure the digital infrastructure we all depend on is available 24/7 to make our lives better.
We see this enthusiasm shared in Host in Ireland’s annual Business Sentiment survey. For the third year in a row, we asked 50 participants from Ireland’s data centre ecosystem about two major trends, talent and business outlooks, for the industry in Ireland.
Job growth sentiment is very strong with 84% of the respondents saying their employee base has grown in the last 12 months. The respondents were even more confident as they looked ahead with 92% expecting their employee base to grow in the upcoming year. This is a 12 point increase over 2021 and reflects the continued growth and expansion of the industry.
Ireland is currently hovering around a 21-year low in its unemployment rate. It is one of the strongest labour markets in Europe and one of only five experiencing a “brain gain” from inbound job seekers looking for employment coming in from other countries. The sentiment from the data centre ecosystem seems to support these facts, but it’s important to note one key trend. The construction industry in Ireland has fallen over the summer amidst inflationary pressures. While these firms are taking a more cautious approach to hiring, our construction industry partners, which make up one of the largest cohorts in Host in Ireland’s data centre ecosystem, seem to still be confident in their hiring prospects.
When asked about their business outlook, 82% of the respondents said they were positive or very positive about their future opportunities. While this is still a very strong sentiment, business sentiment has dropped for the first time by 13 points. Given all the uncertainty that exists around the industry in Ireland, this is not a complete surprise. However, digital infrastructure coming from Ireland – with Irish talent in global and Irish companies – plays a unique role around the world. The data centre market opportunity in Europe is expected to grow to $66B by 2030, and the domestic Irish market represents 10% of that opportunity.
So join us this month in celebrating the people behind the scenes. All month we are featuring the different kinds of career opportunities that exist within the Irish data centre ecosystem.
We’ll be hosting live chats on social media to get to know the people behind the positions better. You can visit our jobs page where you will find links to hundreds of job openings from our partners and learn why this is such an exciting industry to be a part of.