Salaries soar for developers and IT project managers as demand for digital skills outweighs supply in Australia

Wade Du Preez • January 30, 2016

Sydney, Australia, 28 January 2016. Peoplebank, Australia’s leading IT recruitment agency, has today released the Summer 2016 edition of its ICT Salary and Employment Index (S&EI). The quarterly report benchmarks ICT salaries and job vacancies in Australia. The latest edition shows a significant increase in ICT job vacancies, driven by growing investment among Australian companies, including digital transformation, cloud technologies, and big data.


With corporate and government organisations increasingly shifting their businesses online, salaries and job vacancies for digital and web-related roles have continued to rise. In particular, there was an increase in demand for specialists in iOS, SharePoint, Android, and Software Developers, with the average salaries for these specialists in senior positions experiencing a minimum $10,000 increase in the last three months.


IT project roles also saw significant salary increases since the Spring Salary & Employment Index, especially in New South Wales. Senior Project Applications Manager roles, for example, saw a $10,000 rise to salaries of $160,000 over the 3-month period, while Senior Project Co-ordinators pocketed an increase of over 20% to salaries of $110,000.


As stated in the report, there is a continuing fight for IT talent in Australia, which is expected to become even more competitive and challenging for recruiters in 2016. Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory were highlighted as being particularly prone to severe skills shortages.


This is partly due to the emergence of new roles, combined with the shift in demand towards digital skills, which has peaked over the last two years. This includes the emergence of User Experience and Customer Experience professionals, and the shift from traditional Business Analysts to Agile Business Analysts and Digital Business Analysts, all of which are currently very low in supply but high in demand.


Peter Acheson, CEO of Peoplebank, has commented on what these recent trends will mean for the IT recruitment industry in 2016,


“The IT recruitment industry will have a strong 2016. Currently, business confidence is up, consumer confidence is up, and there is expectation of a strong Christmas in retail. These trends, combined with the growing investments among businesses in digital transformation, cloud, and big data, point towards significant growth in IT recruitment.”


Australia, as a workforce and an economy, is currently in the middle of a digital transformation. This has been highlighted by Malcolm Turnbull’s appointment of Paul Shetler as Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Transformation Office and the $254.7 million of the Federal Budget being allocated to the Digital Transformation Agenda. With this renewed focus on technology, digital and innovation among corporate and government organisations, Peoplebank is seeing confidence and investment in digital technologies and talent growing significantly.


Mr Acheson further commented,


“Our recommendation for any CIO or company with IT needs is to make sure that they have a clear strategic workforce plan linked to their future IT skills requirements. 2020 is not that far away, and if I was a CIO I would certainly make sure I was developing my existing and future IT talent pool, so that I have the right people on my team ready to face the changes ahead.”


PR Contact:Mylan Vu
peoplebank@hotwirepr.com.au


Download your copy today at: Peoplebank ICT Salary and Employment Index Summer 2016


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