Melbourne IT&T Market Update: November 2009
Over the past three months, demand for ICT staff has continued to improve in Melbourne. The general tenor is of cautious optimism as large businesses, especially in the financial services sector, re-engage with projects that had been shelved during the downturn.
Demand has grown during the last three months for both contract and permanent staff. In total, the number of permanent roles available through Peoplebank is around 30 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2009 and the number of contract roles is approximately 20 percent higher than experienced in the first quarter.
At the same time there has been a significant reduction in the supply of ICT candidates.
The pool of active jobseekers (either permanent or contract) coming onto the market each month has shrunk by around 75 percent in the past three months, compared with the first half of 2009.
While some contractors have clearly taken refuge in permanent roles as a buffer against the downturn, Peoplebank believes that the key driver for low supply is managers taking care to lock in their ‘A' teams and high performers... resulting in fewer qualified ICT professionals actively seeking new roles.
Looking ahead, Peoplebank foresees a return to the ‘war for talent' between organisations seeking qualified ICT staff as early as 2010.
In demand skills include Java and .NET programmers; Project Managers; Business Analysts and Business Process re-engineering staff; Testers and Test Managers.
