IT consultants in demand in May: report

If you’re a CIO who’s finding it hard to locate workers with mid-level IT skills lately you are not alone, according to SEEK’s latest Employment Indicator (EI) report

The report, which summarises the balance between supply and demand in the Australian labour market, found that IT consultants were the fourth most in demand professional in May.

Only nurses/midwives, primary teachers, practice solicitors, were more in demand during the month. Interestingly, given the current recession environment, property managers were the fifth most in demand professional.

It is also the first time that an IT-related occupation has made the top five list this year.

The findings run somewhat contrary to a recent Hudson report on ICT hiring, which found that as many as 46 percent of IT managers will not hire new staff, and a further 24 percent will cut contractors.

The survey of 818 Australian IT managers found while 30 percent will not replace staff as they leave, half of those surveyed will focus on retaining top performers and training remaining staff.

Looking at the wider national market, the SEEK EI report found that while job ads (as placed on Seek) continued to fall in April and May 2009, the rate of change has slowed significantly to only 1.9 percent in May.

In May new job ads rose in Victoria by 6.1 percent, Western Australia by 3.5 percent, the ACT by 5.6 percent and in Tasmania by 18.1 percent.

The report said new ads continued to fall in New South Wales (-2.7%) and in South Australia (-5.3%), but the rate of decline is slowing in New South Wales.

The news is however positive, as new job ads registered with SEEK between August 2008 and March 2009 new job ads (seasonally adjusted) fell by 44.2 percent, at a monthly rate of 6.6 percent, the report said.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

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