Jennifer Foreshew | August 12, 2008
THE technology recruitment sector continued to languish last month following a plunge in job vacancies in June.
Several studies have painted an uncertain outlook for the IT&T sector, which reflects the gloom in the overall market.
The Olivier Job Index shows the overall national job market declined 0.54 per cent, seasonally adjusted, in July. On a six-month basis, the overall employment market has fallen 7.75 per cent.
The data found IT&T recruitment was down 0.98 per cent last month. In the past six-months, it has slumped 17.11 per cent.
There were 35, 177 IT&T online vacancies in July, compared with 42,441 roles six-months' ago.
"Obviously, the job advertisements are down, but it still hasn't deteriorated significantly," Olivier Group director Robert Olivier says.
"The reason for that is employers still know they have to keep good talent for when it (the market) bounces back.
"So if they can avoid retrenching they are."
In June, the IT&T job market tumbled 8.8 per cent sparking fears of a continuing downward trend.
The overall national jobs market dropped 3.58 per cent in June. It was the worst fall Olivier has recorded.
Olivier expects a tight employment market for full-time employees, particularly in financial institutions, in the year ahead.
"I don't think that there is going to be mass retrenchments, but there will be very limited hiring and the same thing applies to contractors," he says.
In July, IT&T online job advertisements in NSW were down 1.7 per cent, and on an annual basis slipped 2.4 per cent.
In Victoria, technology recruitment fell 2.5 per cent in July, and dropped 10.4 per cent for the year.
While ACT IT&T vacancies were down 0.8 per cent for the month, and plunged 28.6 per cent in a year.
Software development roles fell 0.1 per cent in July, and were down 1.8 per cent for the year.
Management and sales roles slipped 3 per cent last month, and dropped 8 per cent on a 12-month basis.
Networks, communications and security vacancies were down 1.2 per cent in July, and 10.4 per cent for the year.
Internet, graphics and multimedia positions vacant were down 4.4 per cent in July, but up 6.1 per cent for the year.
"This is probably the first sign we have seen of the new media softening," Olivier says.
The data found IT graduate roles were down 24 per cent compared with this time last year.
"Although there are things making their way through the system, such as tax cuts and oil pricing not getting any worse, I still think the global financial jitters will continue to hurt all Australian employers," he says.
"The trend is still down and there are no obvious signs of recovery." The Best IT Talent Index, undertaken by Best People Solutions, shows the overall IT job market has dropped by 5.06 per cent in July.
This is a 6.9 per cent fall in permanent roles, offset by a 0.76 per cent rise in contract positions.
The report says the reticence to hire permanent employees could be attributed to uncertainty in where the market is heading.
"With the new financial year now in swing this could be worrying signs for the IT market in Australia," it says.
"However, it could also point to differing methods of recruitment and less reliance by organisations on traditional internet job boards for finding people."
But the E.L Executive Demand Index finds the IT sector has recovered some of the losses of June by recording a 10 per cent gain in July.
"This could be the only sector said to be affected by the "July effect' of new budgets creating new demand," says the research, published by executive search firm E.L Consult.
"Capital works programs can only begin in July with the new budgets and that includes the IT specialists required to run the programs."
E.L Consult managing director Grant Montgomery says the main surge in the IT sector was in NSW and Queensland and predominantly in the private sector in both cases.
He says much of the July increase was a catch up to a bigger decline in June of 14 per cent.
Averaging out the last three months, E.L Consult has seen an overall decline of about 1 per cent.
"The July increase was not so significant when viewed over the quarter and compared month on month," Montgomery says.
The data shows over the past year falls have outnumbered rises.
"The actual raw numbers for jobs from July 2007 to July 2008 show a retraction of 21.6 per cent, which is significant," he says.