The outlook for employment in the European technology sector, including Ireland, is buoyant but a haemorrhage of jobs to low-cost locations looks set to accelerate, according to the annual IT confidence survey by Eurocom Worldwide in association with its Irish partner, Simpson Financial & Technology PR.

The study found record levels of confidence across the European tech sector, with 63 per cent expecting to increase headcount and only 4 per cent expecting job losses. However a total of 81 per cent of respondents believe that their country is losing tech manufacturing jobs to low-cost centres such as China, India and eastern Europe. Nearly 60 per cent feel service jobs are moving too.

Jobs most in demand by the industry are software engineers, followed by international sales, project management and domestic sales people.

The tech sectors expected to see most growth over the next 12 months include IT security, mobile services, customer relationship management and IT outsourcing.