With many media reports discussing IT skill shortages, it is easy to believe that the industry isn’t growing as well as it could.
However, according to recent statistics from the Information Technology Contract and Recruitment Association (ITCRA), Australia’s IT employment market is both mature and stable. This suggests that the future could be significantly brighter for IT contractors and those seeking their services.
Every quarter, ITCRA analyses employment trends from a number of different sources around the industry. Whether this is ITCRA’s own members, job advertisements from SEEK or data from BurningGlass, this type of information paints an interesting picture of the industry landscape.
Increase in contracting positions
One of the main points to come out of the July to September 2015 quarter report was from SEEK. According to the recruitment provider, contract and permanent advertised roles grew 15.7 per cent over the past year. ITCRA believe this is a sign that Australia’s IT industry is maturing and looking a lot healthier than in recent times.
The only real concern from these statistics was the rise of permanent roles compared to contracting opportunities. Up five per cent since the start of 2015, permanent positions still pale in comparison with contracting roles, which are dominating the recruitment arena.
Of course, it was only a couple of months ago that contracting was the employment type on the rise. As such, the IT industry is still finding a balance, which will be clearer in the months ahead.
Time to place contractors
Another important factor into the health of the Australian IT contracting industry is the time it takes to place someone in a role. ITCRA describes this as a “gauge of market activity” and varies across every state and territory.
Once again, South Australia and Western Australia hold the award for lowest Average Days-To-Fill ICT contract roles (23 days). These states were followed by New South Wales (29 days), Queensland (32 days) and Victoria (36 days).
The ACT remains the hardest place to place IT contractors, as it takes more than double the time (48 days) it takes firms in South Australia and Western Australia to fill positions.
2016 technology trends
For both contractors and businesses alike, guessing what technology will be relevant can be quite tricky. Fortunately, the Gartner 2016 CIO Survey has offered some much needed insight into this area. Taking the responses of close to 3,000 chief information officers (CIO) from around the globe, Gartner listed the top five trends for the New Year.
To provide knowledge relevant to Australian and New Zealand professionals, the research firm separated the thoughts of 175 CIOs from the region to compare with the rest of the world. These respondents recognised business intelligence and analytics as the top trend of 2016
However, while in the ANZ region, cloud, digitalisation/digital marketing and mobile were considered important for the future, infrastructure and data centres placed in the top five around the world.
Vice president at Gartner Graham Waller explained the findings in more detail.
“As has always been the case with business intelligence, the key to big data is to point it at opportunities to harvest real business value from insight. The opportunity is to monetise big data, underpinned by the cloud,” he said.
Additionally, Gartner reported that IT spending is expected to increase 2.8 per cent next year to reach around $80 billion. This suggests that businesses can look at more than one of these trends and ensure they are using the best technology possible.
The Oncore touch
Oncore Services delivers solutions that can change your IT contractor management for the better. From payroll services to salary packaging, we can tailor our services to meet your requirements.
For more information about any of our services, feel free to contact our expert team today.
