Less jobs in softening ICT employment market

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 16:37

IT People - Recruitment

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.

According to ITCRA, a review of its SkillsMatch data for 2011 and industry data showing  softening employment in a “jittery” market,  found that vacancies for ICT professionals dropped 20.1 per cent last year.

ITCRA CEO, Julie Mills, said that while a slowdown isn’t unusual towards the end of a year, the market as a whole was looking jittery. “The Vacancy Report from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations showed vacancies for ICT professionals dropped 20.1 per cent in the past year.”

“The Longhaus Australian Tech Index, which measures the health of the Australian ICT industry, decreased 2.9 per cent by 31 December 2011 – the most significant decline since the second quarter of 2009. This drop was put down to a less demanding labour market in the last three months,” Mills said.

And, Mills says that data from ITCRA’s SkillsMatch showed that in the last quarter of 2011 it took recruiters and employers in most states “much longer to find and hire candidates.”

“The average number of days taken to fill a role increased in the ACT, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, with the most substantial increase in the ACT. In the third quarter of 2011 it took an average of 26.4 days to fill a role, jumping to 41.4 days in the fourth quarter.”

SkillsMatch also identified continuing gaps between the top 10 skills offered by candidates, and those required by employers, according to ITCRA.  “Five of the top 10 skills requested by employers – systems administration, telecommunications, testing, Java and SQL – don’t appear in the top 10 skills offered by candidates,” Mills said.

“Following an upgrade in December 2011, SkillsMatch is now also able to provide an indication of ‘skills fulfilled’, which shows us how often recruiters were able to hire someone with the particular skill they required. For example, our data shows that 35.66 per cent of hirers looking to fill project management roles in 2011 were successful in finding someone with that skill.

“The majority (59.7 per cent) of those looking for employees with C# experience were able to fulfil that need, while only 3.16 per cent of those needing workers with telecommunications experience were able to meet that demand. This data shows there are still opportunities in the market for recruiters and job candidates.”

Mills suggests recruiters should continue to focus on building and maintaining connections with a strong candidate database while focusing on “sourcing job seekers who have the skills most requested by employers.”