The question I keep hearing from finance professionals at the moment is some version of: “Is it still a candidate’s market?” The honest answer is — it depends which candidate you are, and which market you’re asking about.
Q1 2026 data from the Irish professional employment monitor points to a labour market that is not cooling evenly. Demand for qualified finance professionals remains firm across both practice and industry, but the picture is more nuanced than the broad headlines suggest. There are pockets of genuine scarcity, and there are pockets where candidate flow has improved. Understanding which is which matters — whether you’re trying to make a hire or deciding whether to move.
What demand looked like in Q1
Activity in industry hiring was noticeably stronger in Q1 than many expected coming out of the second half of 2025, when a number of organisations had slowed decision-making around headcount. That pause appears to have fed a backlog. CFOs and FDs who deferred hires last year came back to market in Q1 with real urgency, and the pipeline of roles we saw reflect that — financial controllers, senior accountants with three to five years post-qualification experience, and FP&A professionals with commercial credibility.
Practice hiring told a different story in terms of volume, but not in terms of difficulty. Mid-tier and smaller practices continue to struggle to attract and retain qualified staff at the one-to-three year post-qualification mark — the window when people are most likely to consider a move to industry. Some of those firms are competing not just with larger practices but with multinational finance functions offering hybrid working, structured career paths, and salaries that are increasingly hard to match.
What Practice Gives You That Industry Cannot Replicate
If you are still in practice and feeling the pressure to leave, I want to name something that often gets lost in that conversation: the technical depth you are building is genuinely valuable, and it compounds.
Exposure across multiple clients, industries, and regulatory environments in a short period gives you a breadth of experience that most industry roles simply cannot offer at the same career stage. The person who has audited fifteen different businesses across five sectors by the age of twenty-eight knows how companies actually work — the good, the bad, and the ugly — in a way that somebody who joined a single company finance team at twenty-two may not.
That said, practice also has real costs. Long hours around busy season, client pressure, and a feeling that your work is always in service of someone else’s business rather than your own — these are legitimate complaints, not weaknesses. If those things are genuinely wearing you down, industry is worth seriously considering.
Where the real pressure points are
The most acute shortage we are seeing is in candidates who are two to five years post-qualification with practice training behind them. That cohort is being pulled in multiple directions simultaneously. Industry wants them because they bring technical discipline. Practice wants to keep them because they’re the people who carry client relationships and train those coming through. There simply are not enough of them to go around.
Part-qualified and newly qualified professionals are in demand too, though the market is more active at this level and candidate flow is somewhat better. Salary expectations in this bracket are running between €45,000 and €65,000 depending on the role, sector, and whether the firm supports ongoing exam costs — figures worth verifying against current benchmarks before using them in offer conversations.
For qualified professionals at two to five years post-qualification, we’re seeing ranges of €65,000 to €100,000 across industry and practice roles, with the upper end of that range increasingly common in sectors where finance talent competes against tech and professional services. Financial controllers are typically landing between €75,000 and €100,000. Finance Directors at €100,000 and above, with total remuneration pulling further ahead of base when bonus and other benefits are included. These are indicative ranges for the Irish market as of mid-2026 — treat them as a starting point for calibration, not a fixed reference.
What this means for hiring managers
If you are trying to fill a role at the two-to-five year qualified level, the market is not going to do the work for you. Candidates at this level are typically fielding multiple conversations. They have leverage and they know it. That does not mean you need to overpay — but it does mean your process needs to be clean, your feedback needs to be timely, and your offer needs to reflect the market, not what you paid someone in 2023.
The firms making hires successfully right now are the ones treating the process as a two-way conversation from the start. They can articulate what progression looks like. They are honest about the role’s challenges. That combination — clarity and honesty — is more compelling than a generic pitch about culture.
What this means for candidates
If you are qualified, commercially experienced, and considering a move, the conditions are still largely in your favour. But “conditions being in your favour” does not mean every role is right or that you should rush. A career move made well in a strong market is better than a reactive one. Take the time to understand what you are moving towards, not just what you are moving away from.
If you are part-qualified or recently qualified, this market rewards people who are clear about what they want and can articulate why — not just in terms of salary, but in terms of the kind of work and the kind of environment they are looking for. That specificity makes a recruiter’s job easier and it makes you more memorable to the firms you want to work for.
Q2 has started with no obvious sign of demand easing. If you’re making a hiring decision or thinking about a move, the data from Q1 supports acting with purpose rather than waiting to see what the second half of the year brings.
