Slow Xmas for techies… featuring Peter Acheson

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

THE economic downturn has prompted jittery employers to force IT staff to take leave over the holiday season following a widespread slowdown in activity.

The moves come as the IT employment sector experiences a big slump, with job vacancies down as much as 30 per cent compared with 12 months ago.

Peoplebank chief operating officer Peter Acheson said the next few months would be “tighter and quieter” than usual.

“A number of large corporate and government organisations are enforcing annual leave on both their full-time staff and their contract staff,” Mr Acheson said.

“Forced leave, which this is, is symptomatic of a softer market.”

Many organisations had reviewed headcount and had either done a round of redundancies or some “trimming” of staff, he said.

Large projects such as the core systems upgrades planned by the Commonwealth Bank and the National Australia Bank would be important next year, Mr Acheson said.

“I expect it is going to be a very tight January and even February will be pretty soft, but beyond then the outlook is OK.”