ALMOST HALF of the multinationals based in Ireland expect to take on new staff in the coming 12 months, according to a survey released yesterday.
The study found that only 13 per cent of respondents expected to shed staff in the coming year.
The results of the NIB/Irish Management Institute (IMI) survey compare positively with those of last year, when approximately the same percentage of respondents intended to shed staff as intended to take on new staff.
The results are based on responses from 110 multinationals, 81 per cent of which are foreign-owned. Between them the respondents employ 52,500.
The chief executive of the IMI, Dr Tom McCarthy, said the Irish operations of the respondent multinationals were growing because they were increasing the size of their “mandates”, ie winning a greater role for their operation within their companies’ global activities.
Sixty-one per cent of the companies surveyed had won new mandates from their organisations in the past 12 months.
Six out of 10 of the companies surveyed expected turnover to grow in 2012, and 52 per cent said their growth plans were being hindered by a lack of suitable skills among the Irish workforce, especially in engineering and IT.
Mr McCarthy said Irish operations won new mandates by succeeding with the mandates they had, and by the managers of the Irish operations developing relationships within their companies’ global networks.
Sixty-two per cent of respondents said their operations were of very high strategic importance to their parent companies, while a fifth said their Irish operation was the strategic centre of the global company.
The strategic importance of a company’s operation is related to the quality and pay levels of the jobs they provide.
Half of the respondents said more than half of their workforce had third-level degrees, while 29 per cent said more than 75 per cent of their workforce had third-level degrees.
NIB chief economist Ronnie O’Toole said Ireland was good at attracting skilled immigrants but that this was not in itself a solution to the skills needs of the multinational sector.
Seventy per cent of respondents said Irish labour costs were more expensive than comparable locations. Last year 81 per cent of respondents held this view. Mr McCarthy said cost savings by multinationals were viewed relative to expectations as against being viewed as absolute terms.
The survey found that most multinational operations considered other branches of their global organisations to be their main competitors.
The UK was identified as the primary source of competition, with many firms having difficulty competing with the UK following the devaluation of sterling since the onset of the financial crisis.
A total of 21 per cent cited the UK as the location of the greatest threat to their Irish operation, 13.7 per cent cited China, 12.6 per cent cited the US, 10.5 per cent cited India, and 4.2 per cent cited Singapore.