Staff shortages loom as IT contractor demand overtakes permanent

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 06 March 2007 13:47

IT People - Enterprise

Recruiter Best International’s monthly IT Talent Index reveals that the increase in demand for IT contract positions in Australia has overtaken the increase in demand for permanent roles.

While the overall IT job market increased by 10% in February, increase in demand for contract positions was up 10% compared with a rise of 9.3% in permanent roles.

According to John McVicker, Managing Director of Best International, the demand for ICT labour in Australia shows no signs of abating from the dramatic high of the past six months and Australian employers should get ready for potential staff shortages.

“The healthy outlook for February indicates that the IT industry is going from strength to strength and demand for IT jobs will only continue,” said John McVicker. “However, as the availability of permanent IT staff continues to decrease, many employers will need to consider contract arrangements to fulfill permanent roles.”

The Best International IT Talent Index recorded substantial increases in demand for skills across the board  with Analyst Programmers continuing to dominate the IT jobs market.  Demand for Analyst Programmers accounted for up to a quarter of all positions. The largest increases following were in Architect roles at just under 20% and Consulting roles at 16%. 

Significantly, Consulting roles demonstrated early signs of contracting positions surpassing permanent with a 22% increase in contract roles and 13% increase in permanent jobs. Help desk support roles are up 14%, sales and networking and system administration roles 13%, and network engineers and business analysts up 12%.