Introduction
An Introduction To Ireland's Project Economy
Sectors
A Deep Dive Into The Main Sectors of the Industry
Chapters
Profiles of Contractors and the Self-Employed in Ireland
Insights
Stakeholder insights on the Contracting Sector and the Irish Economy
Appendices

Executive Summary

“The project economy is generating high quality jobs and propelling dynamic organisations.”

Quote from Respondent

The 'Project Economy' is driving economic growth and creating high quality jobs.

Welcome to Ireland’s project economy 2025. This detailed research report, undertaken by Trinity Business School in co-operation with Contracting Plus, is now in its 5th year and building up a robust insight into the performance of the project economy and high skilled independent contracting.

The project economy comprises dynamic business activities associated with growth, innovation, transformation and entrepreneurship. It encompasses businesses of all sizes from SMEs through to global corporations. A defining characteristic of businesses in the project economy is that they use blended workforces where they supplement employees with a cadre of high skilled independent contractors.

Blended workforces enable businesses to organize dynamic activities – involving change, uncertainty, innovation and disruption – into projects. This approach allows these activities to be managed and led on a focused, agile, flexible and lower risk basis. Project-based organisations are able to amplify their range and depth of expertise compared to businesses utilising an ‘employee-only’ workforce, as they can draw on unique talent from both within and outside of their organisation.

The project economy not only generates high performance businesses but also creates high quality work. Our research shows that high skilled independent contractors working in the project economy earn more and have higher job satisfaction than equivalent employees. This outcome occurs again this year; even with a decline in the earnings of high-skilled independent contractors. Their total annual earnings have fallen by 7% from €127,164 to €117,978 and average day rates have declined by 3% from €571 to €552. There is some variation in these trends across sectors with earnings rising in ICT, and finance sectors and falling in pharma, engineering and medical locum sectors. There is also gender variation in earnings growth over the last year which we will discuss shortly. However, high skilled independent contractors (comprised of Standard Occupational Codes, SOCs, 1, 2 and 3), are earning roughly 61% more than equivalent employees (based on latest CSO earnings data).

Over 97% of these workers have a university degree or similar level qualification. Typically, they do hi-tech and professional work. They also have an entrepreneurial mindset both in terms of being able to fulfill the entrepreneurial work that they do and also to have the personal resilience to handle a career that is more risky and requires more self-management than employment.

Their economic function is distinct from employees, in that they can provide unique expertise for a limited duration, can be hired quickly and pose minimal long-term risk of costly idle labour for firms, as there is no commitment to hiring them once their role in a project is complete. They provide businesses with an extra dynamic capability to tackle growth and innovative opportunities which involve uncertainty by lowering the risk involved and enhancing the dynamic capability to complete these projects successfully.

As a result, the project economy is a key driver of economic growth and indeed employee job creation . Employees jobs are created in the first instance within projects that would not exist without the option of utilising a blended workforce. Thereafter, employment is created as a result of businesses growing and transforming to exploit opportunities that would be too risky and/or beyond their dynamic capability without the use of project-based blended workforces.

The unique work carried out by high-skilled contractors in the project economy creates a career profile that is different to employees. It’s not just that they earn more than employees, 78% voluntarily choose this form of work and have high levels of job satisfaction. Our research finds that high skilled independent contractors generally have higher levels of job satisfaction than employees and that job satisfaction levels increase with age amongst high-skilled independent contractors.

Furthermore, unlike employees, their labour productivity does not appear to depreciate with age over the typical working lifetime. Whereas the life cycle of employment earnings is inverse U-shaped over working career of employees, that of independent contractors in the project economy exhibits an upward sloping linear profile where earnings increase monotonically with age. So here accumulated expertise is valued much more than in employment. High skilled contractors can be quickly and flexibly deployed to projects where their expertise is valued most. More accumulated expertise gives older freelancers a knowledge advantage as well as having lower risk due to a longer track record. These advantages result in older independent contractors earning higher day rates and annual earnings than their younger counterparts.

Moreover, the project economy is based on work involving cutting-edge knowledge and technology so that as long as high skilled contractors stay active, they can continue to upskill through their work. Therefore, they have an opportunity to acquire more expertise than employees who are often confined to limited areas of knowledge with lower levels of innovation. This makes older high skilled contractors with more accumulated expertise the highest earners in the project economy and earning the highest premium on employees.

Overall, this year high skilled independent contractors are earning a weighted average annual income of €114,656 which is 1.6 times the weighted average wage of equivalent employees (weights are based on equivalent shares of workers in SOCs 1, 2 and 3). High skilled freelancers in Standard Occupational Code 1 are earning €150,047 compared to €90,485 earned by those in full-time jobs in similar roles. Similarly, freelancers in SOC 2 earn €113,577, whereas their full-time counterparts make €72,321. For SOC 3, freelancers earn €96,518, significantly higher than the €58,949 earned by those in full-time positions.

There has been a significant shift in gender pay dynamics within the contracting sector. For the first time, in the 5-year study female contractors earn a higher average daily rate (€565) than their male counterparts (€548). However, women tend to work fewer days per annum, leading to slightly lower annual earnings when compared to men (€114,705 vs. €119,069). While progress is evident, age-based pay disparities persist, with women aged 30-49 earning more than men in the same age group, but younger and older female contractors still face pay gaps.

Contracting continues to attract more women, particularly younger professionals, due to its flexibility, autonomy, and financial rewards. Women now represent 27% of professional contractors, and 81% voluntarily chose self-employment. These findings indicate that contracting is becoming an increasingly equitable and attractive option for women, offering greater financial independence, work satisfaction and professional growth.

As our survey is focused on high-skilled independent contractors it covers both gig and project economy workers. Our results, unearth some myths about the gig economy. Firstly, in the high skilled sector gig workers are better off than equivalent employees as they earn more and have higher levels of job satisfaction. However, high-skilled independent contractors working in the project economy earn even more and with higher levels of job satisfaction than high-skilled gig workers. In fact, amongst high-skilled workers, the project economy workforce is nearly 7 times larger than the gig economy (75% project, 11% gig and the remainder doing both forms of contract). Furthermore, in terms of combined value of workers earnings the project economy workforce is worth 9 times more than the gig economy. Yet the media and public policy still seem preoccupied with the gig economy when the project economy is far more important both for short and long-term economic performance.

Overall, our study highlights the important role of blended workforces and project-based organization for economic growth, business innovation and the creation of high-quality work for both independent contractors and employees. Blended workforces in combination with project-based organisation is a cornerstone of high-quality work and dynamic economic performance.

Any government or business seeking to enable economic growth and high-quality job creation needs to enable this dynamic economic capability. To do so, policy cannot be a blunt ‘one size fits all’ approach as the consistent and central finding of our research is the diversity inherent in the project economy: both in terms of economic functions that independent contractors carry out and the extent to which these translate into worker welfare. High skill is a key differentiator. The poor welfare experience of low skilled gig workers contrasts almost in a binary manner with the high job satisfaction and premium earnings of their high-skilled counterparts.

Moreover, the contractual focus on paying for a worker’s output or productivity is central to achieve performance from project-based organisation, and this limits scope for discrimination. The economic force of the high skilled project-based blended workforce model is sufficiently strong to overturn axiomatic features of employee-only workforces which discriminate against age and gender as well as demoting contractors to a shadow low quality workforce role. By contrast, older workers are the stars of the project economy. Female high skilled contactors have a much smaller pay gap with men than employees and in 2024 were securing higher day rates than men. High-skilled gig workers earn more than their equivalent high skilled employees.

We hope this report provides a useful insight into this high performance business sector and workforce – knowledge we hope can better inform public policy, businesses and workers alike.

– Professor Andrew Burke and Professor Na Fu

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