At a time when banks are shedding IT roles by the dozen, it seems counter-intuitive that 83 per cent of the nation’s chief information officers should report they are confident about the future of their business to the extent that 45 per cent expect to hire IT staff in the first six months of the year. The question remains – is this a dead cat bounce?

The Information Technology Contract and Recruitment Association (ITCRA) has warned of a contraction in Australia’s ICT job market in the next 12 months, after a slowdown in employment towards the end of last year.

Specialist IT recruiter, Finite IT Recruitment Solutions, has stormed ahead with business growth over 2010-2011, particularly in the government sector, writing contracts across all if its business segments to the tune of $50.6 million and ensuring a third placed ranking in the recruitment sector this year, according to a labour hire report just released.

Listed recruitment firm Clarius Group has issued a warning to the Australian Stock Exchange that its net profit after tax for the six months to the end of 2011 will fall in the range $1.2-1.4 million, well down on the previous comparable period profit of $2.4 million. The sharemarket didn’t like the news one iota.

IT hiring managers are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead with many of them expecting to take on new staff over the next 12 months, with the intention to hire more likely with medium sized companies less reliant on cost restraint due to the global economic uncertainty.

The employment statistics for the class of 2010 graduates are out, and computer science graduates didn't fare particularly well.

The sense that today is crunch time for Europe has the financial markets on a knife edge; but it could also open the doors for IT skills as expats and Europeans concerned at the situation in the Northern Hemisphere look to the apparently more benign Australian market for jobs in 2012.  

The recently promoted cyber puzzle has been solved by many people; now we have a full video of all the steps.

A special code-cracking page was recently launched seemingly to find people to whom a job-offer might be made.  UK citizens - fancy working for GCHQ?

IT recruitment firm, Finite Group, continues its charity fund raising activities, with nineteen of its staff members raising almost $6,000 in November by taking part in the annual Movember fundraiser to raise awareness for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the national depression group, beyondblue.

According to Telstra, research it has conducted suggests that around 12 percent of employers have rejected job applicants based on what they have found on the applicant's Facebook or Twitter postings.

First the brutal stuff; if you’re an out of work IT professional, you’re probably not going to find the right job this side of Christmas and contractors should take what they can find. The flip side is you can relax and enjoy the summer - as long as you carve some time to freshen up the CV, line up good strong referees, polish up your soft skills and dry clean your suit ready for a February kick off.

It now seems safe to state categorically that courtesy of the economy and tumbling business confidence Australia’s IT skills shortage is well and truly over and will stay so for the remainder of 2011 and well into the first quarter of 2012.

The Gillard Government has re-jigged its 457 visa program, with the Immigration Department speeding up processing times for employers seeking to bring in foriegn workers and doubling to six years the duration of the long-stay visa.

Technology recruiter, Finite IT has won the prestigious Deloitte Recruitment Excellence Award for best business management for the second year running.

Huawei Australia is on the hunt for up to another 100 staff, mostly wireless technologists.

While demand for IT executives softened slightly in the last quarter, a skills mismatch continues to plague companies looking for technology staff. However it might be more to do with intransigence than ill-suitedness according to a leading recruitment organisation.

The popularity of ‘traditional’ online job advertising amongst recruiters and job hunters is not expected to retain its current levels of popularity, with social media predicted to change the recruitment advertising landscape.

Juniper Networks has spent the last few months strengthening its management team as it moves to leverage its technology position in key growth markets, including the Asia Pacific region.

Demand for executives in the IT sector dropped off significantly in September, along with all other business and industry sectors, as Australia experienced the lowest level of new jobs being created since the same month in 2009.