IT&T jobs still on a downhill slide

Stan Beer
Sunday, 04 May 2008 14:48

IT People - Enterprise

High interest rates are putting the damper on jobs in the Australian IT and Telecoms sectors according to a new survey. April once again saw a significant fall in IT&T job ads, continuing a downward trend set in the previous two months.

According to the Olivier Job Index figures, from recruiter Olivier Group, the IT&T job market has seen three consecutive monthly declines since February.

The IT&T sector fell again last month by 1.92%, bringing its fall to 9.73% in 3 months. Recent news that big four bank Westpac is planning to send more of its functions offshore will augur ill for IT&T, according to Olivier, as well as the embattled Financial Services and Banking sector which itself has fallen 11% over the past 3 months.
               
Olivier Group blames the declining jobs market on tightening of monetary policy by the Reserve Bank. With speculation about a further interest rate rise on the horizon, business is taking a wait-and-see approach to recruitment, according to Olivier.

“Clearly we aren't in the record breaking job market of 2007 any more,” says Robert Olivier, a Director of the Olivier Group.

“We're hearing stories of contractors being pulled off jobs and projects being mothballed.”

The majority of jobs available in the IT&T sector are for Software Development & Engineering skills 34%, followed by Sales & Marketing roles 20%, according to the April Olivier report.

“Recent business confidence surveys have consistently been showing lowered expectations, and that's being reflected in hesitancy about employing new staff,” says Robert Olivier.  A key indicator is that graduate job ad numbers were down 6.1% in the month.