IT worker shortage continues as jobs remain unfilled

There was a shortage of 4600 IT professionals across Australia during the December quarter with skills in data warehousing, business intelligence and SAP technologies remaining in high demand, according to the Clarius Skills Index.

The recruiter said there were 211,700 positions (including vacancies) available during the period but only 207,100 professionals available to fill these roles.

Linda Trevor, executive general manager of Candle, Clarius’ IT recruitment brand, said the early announcement of the federal election date had already prompted “delays and replanning of IT-related projects.”

“It caught both private companies and government departments by surprise,” Trevor said in a statement. “But seven months out and it is already beginning to affect decision-making on hiring for certain projects, particularly in government sectors.

IT job market trends also differ in each Australian state with an emerging trend of multi-skilled employees. In Sydney, there is a shortage of people with skills in business intelligence and data warehousing, while in Melbourne, there has been downsizing for IT employees in the banking industry, the recruiter said.

Perth is not experiencing any skills shortages at the moment but requirements for multi-skilled staff have increased across Western Australia. Technical ‘hands-on’ project managers, business analysts and consultants are in higher demand across the state than just a project manager, said Trevor.

There is an oversupply of IT roles in Queensland with no current shortages in any category while there are niche shortages for Drupal and Python developers in the largely government market in the ACT.

CIOs in demand

Meanwhile, CIOs appear to be in high demand across several industries with a “higher than normal” upswing in the number of openings for CIOs in the first two months of 2013, according to recruiter Harvey Nash.

Harvey Nash MD, Bridget Gray said: “CIOs have clearly made a move to organisations they feel can satisfy their innovation and strategic ambitions and we are now seeing the roles being advertised that they have left. In fact, around 55 per cent of CIOs surveyed by Harvey Nash in 2012 said they planned to leave their current role in the next one to two years. These CIOs want to innovate and are looking for ambitious employers.”

The large number of corporate acquisitions and mergers globally also often results in Australian-based CIOs to temporarily or more permanently lose some of the strategic initiatives and transformation programs that were in delivery phases, Gray said.

“This can often encourage them to entertain and act on external opportunities where they may be able to maintain or improve their strategic standing,” Gray said.