Australia’s ICT market is growing well ahead of the broader jobs market, according to Peoplebank Australia’s quarterly Salary & Employment Index – Spring, release today. Peoplebank’s Index shows that hiring in most major cities – Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne continue to be strong to very strong, while the Brisbane market is warming as businesses gear up for growth.

Peter Acheson, CEO of Peoplebank comments that a key driver of ICT hiring includes the fact that business is now largely conducted online, organisations have moved from having digital capability – ‘doing digital’ – to being digital businesses. As part of this trend, SMEs are hiring ICT skills in larger numbers, and new hires are increasingly sitting in the broader business, rather than in traditional IT departments.

In Sydney, demand levels grew by a further 10% on the previous quarter – itself the highest for seven years – while in Canberra, demand has grown to its highest level this decade on the back of new projects in both the public and private sectors.

ICT professionals in Adelaide are enjoying a growing market, with contract roles climbing steadily over the last quarter and indications that business and Government organisations will be making further investments in digital capabilities.

Demand for ICT skills in Melbourne remains solid. While enterprise hiring has softened over the past quarter – compared with the market peak over the Autumn season – the overall market is being sustained by stronger hiring from the SME sector.

“Businesses are seeing the returns on their data driven innovation, which is spurring more organisations to commit to investments in digital capabilities,” comments Mr Acheson.

“In particular, companies are investing in data driven innovation. We are seeing the data science industry mature into a number of specialities, such as modelling and predictive analytics.

What’s also really exciting is that the early adopters of data analytics are increasingly mixing up their teams, having people from different parts of the business sitting together, cross-pollinating their capabilities and gaining richer insights as a result.”

“Organisations in every sector in the economy are using their data to grow – and as a result, Australia is well on the way to realising $billions in additional revenue,” Acheson adds.

The Peoplebank Salary & Employment Index – Spring is available at www.peoplebank.com.au/salary-index