SHORTAGES of IT staff over the next few years pose no threat in Northern Ireland. A report published by the Northern Ireland skills task force says that if higher and further education enrolments continue to grow “there may well be a surplus”.
The study examined a range of scenarios, each with different assumptions about the growth in employment and the number of graduates over the nex five years. It concluded that supply of new IT-qualified workers easily balanced, and could even outweigh, demand, up to 2005. This is expected to make Northern Ireland an attractive option for inward investment firms.
An analysis of demand and supply conditions in the Northern Ireland IT labour market, records on-going difficulty in finding staff for more senior positions.