ICT jobs contract as governments tighten purse strings

Stan Beer
Monday, 18 May 2009 13:56

IT People - Enterprise

“We are seeing significant employment variations across all States in the computing industries with Government sectors signalling shrinkage in opportunities as various departments cut costs following government hand-outs and a dramatically increased Federal deficit,” said David Stewart, Executive General Manager of leading IT recruitment company, Candle ICT, a division of the Clarius Group.

“But in the private sector there are some signs of increased demand in the first quarter of 2009 particularly for IT Managers and in contracting in some States and a reduction in demand in others.

“The NSW sector has stabilised with a sign that more roles are being made available, the ACT is seeing more candidates come on the market as budgets are cut,

“In South Australia, the market has seen a definite swing to contracting as companies are waiting to see what the economy holds before they look to replace or increase permanent staff again.

“The WA recruitment market is still very flat. Both permanent and contract hiring is limited. Many clients are looking to hire direct, though we are now starting to see some of those clients come back to us as they find that recruiting quality candidates is a much more detailed process than just putting a job board advert out.”

Meanwhile, the cuts to the skilled migration intake in the Federal Budget would not be made to professions on the critical skills shortage list such as IT.

The Clarius Skills Index report says: “With IT support services now a part of almost every business in Australia, demand for highly skilled computing professionals in fields such as database management, networking and software development should remain solid.

With the global financial crisis causing weakness across all sectors of the economy, demand for computing professionals (and other similar auxiliary business functions) is not likely to grow until world economic conditions begin to improve.

However, once the economy turns around, demand for ICT professionals can be expected to grow strongly, as businesses seek to expand and position themselves to take advantage of new growth opportunities.  

With some indicators hinting that the Australian economy may now be reaching the low point in the economic cycle, a turnaround in demand for computing professionals could occur during the second half of 2010.