Adelaide IT&T Market Update: November 2009
IT business confidence is returning to Adelaide. From record low levels in February 2009, confidence is now approaching levels of the ‘boom' years 2003-2005.
South Australia's economy is continuing to perform strongly with labour force participation at near-record levels and huge mining potential with surging exploration and production set to follow.
South Australia is also the high-technology centre for Australia's defence industry, with more than $10 billion in contracts. Reflecting these strengths, the Adelaide market over the past three months has begun to see a lift in demand for skilled IT professionals.
Specifically...
Permanent recruitment remains flat, as employers reflect a mood of ‘cautious optimism' by upskilling their teams with contract staff - at least in the short term.
As business confidence further strengthens, we expect to see an increase in demand for permanent staff in the first quarter of 2010.
Contract opportunities have remained steady. Since late June 2009 Peoplebank has observed a rise in demand for contractors as projects that had been shelved (due to the downturn) come back online. This lift has been sustained over the past three months and we expect that it will increase again in the New Year.
Skills in most demand are for Testers, Exchange Engineers, Infrastructure Engineers, Oracle Developers, Cisco and Infrastructure Support.
