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Hirings on the Rise as Talk Turns to Recovery

17 August, 2009

The technology sector is showing early signs of recovery, with a lift in hiring intentions last month, led by contracting roles.

According to recruitment specialists, a lift in permanent recruitment is, however, at least six months away.

The latest Olivier job index shows a swift turnaround for hi-tech, with online vacancies up 8.38 per cent, seasonally adjusted, in July. The overall national market was steady, dipping 0.41 per cent.

Technology was the best performer of 17 sectors surveyed last month. In June, technology vacancies were down 1.91 per cent.

The strongest IT job categories were software development and engineering (up 8.6 per cent last month), followed by internet graphics and multimedia, which rose 8 per cent. Management and sales vacancies also improved 2.7 per cent.

Olivier Group director Robert Olivier said there was consensus that the market was turning for the better, with contracting most in favour. “What has caught us by surprise is the extent of the upturn in IT,’’ Mr Olivier said.

“I would expect it to keep on improving unless this is a bit of a statistical aberration. So we might get a correction this month, but the general feeling is still positive.”

Peoplebank chief operating officer Peter Acheson said there had been an incremental improvement, which was likely to continue.

“There is clearly much greater hiring intention on behalf of our large corporate and government clients,” Mr Acheson said. “We are certainly starting to see more contracting jobs come through, but permanent remains pretty flat.”

Peoplebank’s quarterly IT&T salary index showed a firming in the number of contractors being hired in June—a 5 per cent rise over the previous quarter.

Mr Acheson said a return to permanent hiring was not expected for a further six to nine months.

“The thing that tells me this has got some sustainability, too, is the fact that we are continuing to see clients hiring skills you would typically associate with the commencement of projects,” he said.

Hays IT Australia-New Zealand director Peter Noblet was hopeful the general willingness to take on contractors would translate into real hires.

“We have seen some quite large organisations, both public and private, budgeting to get their hiring up over the next three months,” Mr Noblet said. “I think it will start taking effect at the end of this calendar year and into 2010.”

Demand was strong for development professionals and network engineers at a senior level, he said.

But other than continued strong demand for Oracle resources, the focus remained on maintenance or essential development, rather than anything new, Ambition Technology managing director Andrew Cross said.

“We have seen a clear increase in the number of jobs being released from clients, which has flowed through to July being quite a strong revenue month,” Mr Cross said.

“Business sentiment is stronger than it has been for a while and we are nervously waiting to see whether it is a blip or a new trend back towards more positive times.”

Budget constraints had brought down salaries by about 10 per cent over this time last year and, apart from top-tier candidates, most people were prepared to accept lower rates, he said.

Michael Page Technology manager Kavita Herbert said market confidence seemed to have picked up after a slump in June, with new budgets being released.

“Managers are now beginning to talk about new and upcoming projects, but this isn’t necessarily translating into jobs being created immediately,” she said.

Managers were struggling to get a sign-off from human resources for permanent hires in the mid-senior levels and would take on contractors to fulfil their requirements.

“In the senior, more strategic, space, we’re finding a lot of senior management roles that were dissolved last year have been re-created, as the opportunity cost of keeping these roles vacant is deemed too high.”

Ms Herbert said there would probably be a gradual improvement over the next six months, but most clients would kick off strategic projects by the first quarter of next year.

The June quarter Clarius skills index released last week shows all states except NSW experiencing stronger demand for skilled IT&T professionals in a range of technology job categories.

It shows business analyst roles are scarce in NSW, suggesting projects have yet to pick up there.

Source: CareerOne