Ageism rife in IT?

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 03 September 2009 07:29

IT People - Enterprise

But the 2009 survey found little variation by gender among those who have experienced unemployment during the last five years. Previous surveys found women reported higher levels of unemployment.

So what's the good news in the survey?

80% of respondents had undertaken some form of training during the previous year. Not surprisingly, almost as many said training or retraining was necessary every one to three years to keep skills current.

And around 60% of employers help decide what training is required, with 70%  meeting at least part of the cost of training.

Even though the economy has sagged since the 2007 survey, patterns of IT employment still look strong. Around two-thirds of respondents are still working more than 40 hours a week, though slightly fewer are putting in more than 50-hour weeks.

The proportion of full-time employees has dropped slightly from approximately 80% to roughly 75%, with part-time employment doubling to around 7%. The proportion of hourly contract employees and the self-employed also increased slightly.

"The number of full time workers in the industry has remained steady despite an overall decline in employment within the general population. The challenge facing Australia is to identify and act on the reality that IT skill sets are going to be in insatiable demand for the foreseeable future," said Parakala.

"Regulating professional standards and providing incentives for employers to invest in staff training and retention of older workers in particular, should be high on the Government's agenda," he added.