Stan Beer
Sunday, 06 July 2008 15:56
IT People -
Enterprise
Page 1 of 2
Two of leading IT jobs market indicators show that 2008 has not been a strong year for IT&T jobs in Australia, with June recording a particularly large fall in advertised positions. What's more, according to one report, there are ominous indications that the deteriorating IT jobs market may be a long term trend.
The June monthly reports from recruitment firms
Best People and Olivier Group are for once in very close agreement
about the state of the IT&T jobs market. The Best Talent Index
recorded an overall decrease in IT&T jobs of 7.15% in June, while
the Olivier Report had the IT&T jobs sector falling 8.8% for the
month.
In addition, both Best and Olivier data found that IT&T jobs market
has contracted in the past year. Best, an IT&T specialist recruiter
had jobs down 0.01% for the year, while general recruiter Olivier
recorded a fall of 1.3% for the year.
Significantly, Olivier, which tracks a range of sectors, found that
IT&T and financial services were the only two professional sectors
to record a fall in jobs over the past 12 months.
Both Olivier and Best noted that the sharp fall in IT&T jobs in
June may well be a blip caused by an end of financial year effect.
However, Olivier, usually the less optimistic of the two monthly
reports, also noted that graduate jobs in IT fell 9% in the month,
indicating a longer term trend.
According to Olivier, software development, the biggest IT&T market
sector, fell 6.8% in the month, while Internet, graphics and media was
the only positive segment, up 1.6%.
Best, which differentiates between permanent and contracting roles,
found that June recorded a 4.81% decrease in permanent jobs, while the
contract market dropped a resounding 13.84%.
Best also noted that, while most sectors declined in June, there was a
massive increase of 127%, according to its figures, seen in the
Contract Sales sector but a 10% decrease in the Permanent Sales market.
"This is a very similar trend to March/April this year and could be an
indication that organisations are still looking to kick start projects
in the new Financial Year with new approved budgets but again treading
carefully and not committing too strongly to permanent staff," Best
stated in its report.CONTINUED
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