Almost two thirds of US-based companies operating in Ireland say they intend to grow employee headcount at their operations here over the next twelve months.
According to a survey of companies ahead of this year's American Chamber Global Business Conference, around three in ten respondents said they intend to maintain staff numbers at current levels.
5% also said they expected to see an overall reduction in employee numbers this year.
That represents a marginal increase on the 4% who said they intended to cut staff numbers in the last comparable survey in November of last year.
The findings come against the backdrop of job losses among a number of high-profile tech firms.
The Central Bank published a study earlier this month which concluded that 2,300 jobs had been lost in the sector in the year to February, representing about 1.4% of overall IT jobs here, or just over 6% of the increase in employment in the sector since the end of 2019.
Since the report's publication, some IT companies have announced a second round of job losses and the global consulting company Accenture said it was going to cut staff numbers by 19,000 globally, including 400 roles here.
The Information Technology sector increased staff numbers substantially during the pandemic to reflect the stay-at-home working and leisure trend which sent the share prices of many companies soaring.
However, against the backdrop of higher interest rates, as well as greater mobility among populations since the ending of pandemic restrictions, companies in the sector have been forced to revise their financial positions.
Despite this, 78% of respondents to the most recent American Chamber survey said the number of employees in the Irish operations had increased over the last 12 months.
Among the other findings in the survey, 58% of respondents said housing represented the most significant challenge for Ireland to overcome in order for them to grow their operations here.
"To be frank, in terms of future success of inward investment, it really is all about capacity - capacity of housing, our planning system, energy, transport, education and research," Mark Redmond, CEO of the American Chamber told Morning Ireland.
14% said skills shortages represented the biggest barrier to growth with over two thirds saying their organisations were currently experiencing a skills gap.
The biggest skills gap identified in the study was in engineering followed by digital and data as well as machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.
"We need to do better in removing barriers for girls and women to pursue engineering subjects and careers," Mr Redmond said.
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Responding to reports that the Department of Finance was proposing maintaining the 12.5% corporate tax rate here and levying a top up on bigger companies to honour the new OECD 15% rate, Mr Redmond said it made sense.
"This is within the OECD framework. This is more a matter of implementation as opposed to changing the goalposts," he said.
"The vast majority of companies will continue to pay the 12.5%. A small - but significant in terms of scale - number will be paying an effective rate of 15%," he explained.
"It makes sense from an Ireland perspective. The 12.5% rate is really well recognised. It's important to understand that the rate is staying. It's a small number of companies that will move to the 15% rate," he concluded.
950 US companies currently have operations in Ireland, employing 376,000 people directly and indirectly.
Ireland is also now the ninth largest FDI investor in the US, with 650 companies employing over 100,000 people across all 50 States.
Executives from some of the biggest US multinationals based here are at today's American Chamber Global Business Conference.
Ann-Marie Holmes, the Corporate VP and Co-General Manager of Intel Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing, highlighted the importance of ensuring that the country's infrastructure meets the needs of businesses.
"Our planning systems need to be efficient and effective for the infrastructure that we need," Ms Holmes said.
"We need certainty of timelines and processes, be it for waste, power our housing, it doesn't matter and the reason I say that is because they are items we control inside this country," she added.
Ms Holmes said that if such issues are addressed, it would allow companies to focus more of their efforts on planning for the future.
