NBN would provide hundreds of needed jobs says recruitment boss

Stan Beer
Thursday, 05 March 2009 03:53

Opinion and Analysis

The boss of one of Australia's largest ICT recruiters says the much delayed National Broadband Network could provide hundreds of desperately needed ICT jobs. ICT project managers are being let go by the hundreds across Australia and recruiters are looking to the Telecoms sector to keep the market afloat with projects like the NBN.

According to David Stewart, CEO of Candle ICT, research from the Candle's parent the Clarius Group shows that the ICT job market is generally shrinking but there are pockets where it is still strong.

"There are basically only a couple of sectors where the demand for jobs is still coming through and those are the Telco and Government infrastructure services," Mr Stewart told iTWire.

"There is no doubt that the NBN would provide a huge boost for jobs. I would think it would be in the hundreds," Mr Stewart said.

The increasingly precarious state of the ICT jobs market is putting increased pressure on the Federal Government to bring projects like the much delayed NBN online sooner rather than later.

However, the Government's emphasis on providing jobs through spending on infrastructure appears to be at odds with its razor gang approach in Canberra, where its adoption of the Gershon Review recommendations is decimating the ICT contracting market.

Canberra, a place where it has traditionally been hard to attract permanent ICT workers, has in the past been a stronghold of the ICT contracting space. The Gershon Review, which recommended that the Government reduce contracting roles and replace them with permanent jobs, appears to have put an end to that.

At the time the Gershon Review recommendations were adopted a number of the largest recruiters privately expressed skepticism and misgivings about the Government's contractor slashing approach.

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