Boost for Aussie tech jobs market
Boost for Aussie tech jobs market
The Australian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has received a welcome boost following the release of a survey showing that a significant increase in employment opportunities for ICT professionals.
The survey, which was undertaken by the Australian Computer Society, revealed that in 2003, full-time employment among respondents rose form 60.8 percent to 64.7 percent. A sample share of around 4.8 percent of the ACS' 218,000-strong membership of ICT professionals took part in the survey.
While the increase in full-time employment levels is welcome, the survey provided something of a mixed bag of results in terms of the fortunes of those working in various sectors of the ICT industry, with not everyone on the receiving end of good news.
While unemployment across the ICT industry as a whole fell by 1.8 percent, from 12.4 percent in 2002 to 10.6 percent in 2003, the level of unemployment in the ICT sector is still significantly higher than the national unemployment rate, which was 6.3 percent in 2002.
Unemployment among female respondents dropped significantly, from 12.3 percent to 6.3 percent, with unemployment also falling sharply among those who classed themselves as business analysts, down from over 14 percent in 2002 to just 5.4 percent in 2003.
"There are some promising trends illustrated in this report, which support our belief that the ICT sector as a whole will continue to experience better than national rates of employment growth in the coming twelve months," said ACS President Edward Mandla. "However unemployment levels remain unacceptably high."
Mandla added that the dynamics of the ICT industry are currently very complex with many forces working both for and against it. He cited offshoring and an increasing ICT deficit as factors that work against it, and open source software and increased government/large corporate spending on projects as things that are working in its favour.
"Overall we have a barometer that is currently positive. Most vendors are reporting that quotations and proposal for ICT projects are the largest in two years and the projects are much larger. If this trend continues it could lead to certain skill shortages."
While Mandla was of the opinion that it was a good time to be thinking about pursuing a career in the ICT industry, he acknowledged that certain aspects of the survey were a cause for concern, most notably the dissatisfaction expressed by over 80 percent of respondents with recruitment agencies.
"The data suggests that the ACS ought to build closer relationships with recruitment companies and consider branding, certifying, investing in, setting up or acquiring a recruitment company.
"ICT has always been a tough career to crack. The industry works on short cycles and often prefers to raid experienced employees from another organisation than train their own. Every ICT professional can tell you a great story of how they got a break into the industry. Every IT graduate has to be patient and work hard to get their first break. Therefore they should try and get whatever relevant experience they can."
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