Permanent IT jobs dip

Article appeared in: The Australian
Author: Jennifer Foreshew
Date: 9th September 2008

PERMANENT technology roles have slumped 20 per cent since February, but contracting vacancies have held steady, according to the country’s largest IT&T recruiter.

Peoplebank, which acquired Ambit earlier this year, has also reported that the Victorian and Queensland IT job markets have softened in the past few months, while NSW and ACT have turned in patchy performances.

The news comes as the ANZ monthly job ad index, a measure of the overall employment market, showed that job ads in metropolitan newspapers and on the internet fell by 4.9 per cent, the biggest drop in seven years.

Peoplebank chief operating officer Peter Acheson said Western Australia’s IT recruitment market had just had a record month, while South Australia continued to perform well.

“We are not seeing any reduction in contracting volumes, it is only on the permanent side,” Mr Acheson said. He said salaries were likely to remain flat after consistent rises in recent years.

“There is nobody paying out the big salary increases right now,” he said.