20/01/2012

Australia Experiences Surge in IT Career Confidence

Recruitment firms have discovered that Australia’s information technology sector remains the third most confident market in the country in terms of projected demand for hiring permanent staff over the course of the next three months. Great news if you’re planning on spending significant time Down Under!

Australian recruitment agency Hudson found that almost half the country’s employers (48.1 per cent) have plans to increase their number of staff performing IT jobs in the first quarter of 2012. This upswing in confidence was only outdone in the professional services and resources sectors.

Hudson’s review reflected the confident opinions of over 4,300 employers ranging across the whole of Australia. Of those surveyed, even those who didn’t plan to take on more staff were still in a stable position, as 43.6 per cent of respondents said that they anticipated the number computer jobs would remain steady over this quarterly period.

Hudson’s Asia Pacific chief financial officer Mark Leigh said: "Despite the current international uncertainty, and changing conditions at home, employment expectations in Australia on the whole remain positive, particularly in the resources, transport and construction and engineering sectors," 

"Furthermore, we expect high demand in certain roles, such as engineering, geology, health & safety executives and operational roles, as well as for customer facing IT specialists,’’ he said.

Increased confidence in this sector is fast becoming a phenomenon felt all around the eastern part of the world. These findings mirror the optimism of another report recently made by the World Bank entitled More and Better Jobs in South Asia. In it, the World Bank predicted that by 2030 another 1-1.2 million new entrants would be joining the job market every month in South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives.

Not only was the quantity of new jobs expected to exponentially increase, but also their productive quality. More specialised career professions, primarily IT jobs, were expected to become available to inhabitants of these countries. The report explained that the top three constraints to IT job creation in South Asia’s “urban formal sector” were electricity issues, corruption and political instability.

While demand for IT recruitment may not be as buoyant in the West as it currently is in Australia and South Asia, European IT sector confidence remains relatively stable despite rising unemployment and government austerity measures.

Furthermore, the increased short- and medium-term opportunities provided by many new projects, has meant that many IT workers are also willing to pursue IT contract jobs and enjoy the higher flexibility and pay. Maybe it’s time to start searching ahead of your travels for that lucrative role that will provide for a fantastic trip, with all of the perks paid for.