Australian businesses are being held back by the country’s tech skills shortage, with many businesses now looking to skilled migration and contract workers to lift pressure on their workforce needs, according to one recruitment firm.

Skilled migrants have been an “overwhelming net positive” for the Australian economy and particularly sought after for filling skilled IT positions like developer programmers and ICT business analysts, according to a new report.

With the growing acceptance of the so-called "gig economy" workforce in Australia, newly published research reveals that Australian hiring managers predict a 70:30 split between permanent and temporary workers by 2023.