Skills shortage putting pressure on ICT salaries says report

Stan Beer
Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:16

IT People - Enterprise

A move away from contracting toward securing in-house expertise, as well as an increasing skills shortage, were two of the trends identified in a new report from a national recruitment firm.

According to the Technology Recruitment Trends and Salaries report, from ASX listed recruiter Ambition (ASX:AMB), the investment banking sector is experiencing high growth, while the corporate sector has demand for ERP and EDI skills. IT storage and security skills are sought after from both the Government and Vendor sectors.

One of the more notable trends highlighted by the report is that employers who insist on being too choosy are missing out on filling roles because of the growing skills shortage.

“One noticeable impact of the skills shortage is that companies still insisting on multiple interviews, or who have lengthy recruitment procedures, are losing high calibre candidates who accept another offer from what is perceived to be a faster moving dynamic environment. The view from candidates is that if a company moves quickly during the recruitment process, they will move quickly as a business, therefore making that business a more attractive place to work,” the report states.

The report states that salaries have been largely kept in check by employers. However, high calibre application development specialists, development team leaders, database managers, architects, security specialists and testers are enjoying double digit percentage growth in salaries.
 
The report also warns of an overseas brain drain as Australia’s best ICT talent continues to be lured by the prospect of big projects overseas.