IT jobs rocketing up not down says Best International

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 16:14

IT People - Enterprise

In a rare display of public disunity, a major recruitment group has cast doubt upon the figures of another recruitment group which claims that jobs for the IT and Telecoms sector in Australia is on a downward spiral. Recruiter Best International says its latest research based on jobs board data indicates that IT&T jobs ads were sharply up for February, in stark contrast to the findings of rival recruiter Olivier Group.

Yesterday, iTWire ran a story based on figures from Olivier Group which publishes a monthly report called the Olivier Index on the state of the jobs market across a range of industry sectors incuding IT&T. According to the report, the IT&T sector fell 7.11% seasonally adjusted in February, based on 403,926 Positions Vacant ads on commercial job sites.

Today, rival recruiter Best International sent iTWire its own report Best IT Talent Index which is clearly at odds with the Olivier Index. In stark contrast to the Olivier report, the Best Talent Index found that the IT&T sector had risen by 14.44% in February.

According to the Best report, permanent roles have experienced a hefty 24.9% increase in the past 12 months, while contracting positions underwent a minimal rise of less than 0.5%. What's more Best is bullish on the IT&T jobs market for the coming year.

"Moving forward the IT market shows no signs of slowing down dramatically. With this in mind, good calibre candidates will become more and more in demand as the number of opportunities for them increases. This in turn has a tendency to push up salaries artificially and will preclude some organisations from attracting this level of person," the Best report states.

"While we agree with some of the findings from Olivier we did not find that the IT market has dropped over the last month – in fact quite the opposite," said Richard Bland, principal of Best International Group in an email to iTWire.

So why the discrepancy between the Best IT Talent Index and the Olivier Index? Could it have something to do with the fact that the same jobs are broadcast over a wide range of jobs boards?