IT jobs growing to full recovery

Appeared In: ARN
By: David Ramli
Date: 17th of November 2009

Analysts say the worst is over and predict a mid-2010 return to normal IT job growth

Peoplebank COO, Peter Acheson, agreed with Wijesundera’s timeline for recovery and said there would not be a fast rebound of the jobs market.

“There’s no V-shaped recovery yet. I think we will see the market strengthen post-Christmas and by February-March we’ll be in a stronger market. I do think it will continue to get better each month,” he said.

Acheson attributed it to renewed business confidence and major ongoing IT projects.

“There are a number of big companies, including the four major banks, who have got large IT projects underway and they are starting to drive demand,” Acheson said. “They held back hiring of people for some time, but realistically there’s only so long they can hold off before those projects need to scale up.”

Both analysts agreed with predictions of a mid-2010 recovery of IT jobs to near full strength and said the worst was over.

“In an IT context [full recovery] means strong demand for people both in contracting and in permanent positions and we’ll be back in a market where we’ll start to see talent shortages as well,” Acheson said. “It wouldn’t take much to get back into a tight candidate market like we had in early 2008.

“I think by this time next year we’ll start seeing growth in IT salaries again in the 3-4 per cent annual range.”