ICT hiring within the Federal Government has been forecast to hit an all-time high in 2012 with current spending on contractors already tipping $591.5 million for the 10 months to April 2012.

Western Australia has seen a ramp up in recruitment of CIOs and senior ICT employees as companies try to meet increasing demands of the ongoing mining and resources boom.

The recruitment industry may be headed for a major shakeup thanks to new software designed to automate job functions and make use artificial intelligence-based decision making, which may result in the loss of some recruitment roles.

Online education provider Open Universities Australia is in talks to initiate corporate partnerships with the likes of IBM, HP and other major IT companies in a bid to combat the declining number of qualified IT personnel in the Australian market.

The CIO of the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Glen Archer, has admitted there are fewer places for IT contractors in Canberra, but stopped short of saying there in a new skills crisis in the nation's capital.

Stephanie Christopher, national director of SHL Australia New Zealand, a company which assists companies — including recruitment firms — in their recruitment activities, says that for the more technical positions HR has to fill, “it would lean toward the line manager for advice; it would be the line manager who would have final say”.

That noise you hear is the scrape of chairs being pushed back, laptops snapping shut and your ICT staff walking out the door. The war for talent is on again — if it ever stopped — and as with all wars, there will be victors, survivors and casualties. Identifying, retaining and developing talent never gets easier. There are only degrees of difficulty. What should you do to attract and groom good people? How can you make your IT organisation one that offers interesting roles and compelling career prospects? How can you avoid becoming collateral damage in the war?

As the global financial crisis continues to bite and staff are laid off, the question of whether the recession presents an opportunity organisation to pick up some highly skilled workers at fire-sale prices has emerged.

The federal government may be harming its ability to compete for top talent as it continues to tighten the IT purse strings