The good and bad news comes from ClicksIT Recruitment in its annual recruitment survey, with a forecast that salaries in the IT sector this year will rise by a ‘miserly’ 1.54%, even though employers say they will increase their IT budgets and staffing levels during 2015.
“Australia’s steady improvement in economic outlook has fed through to IT budgets, particularly in the public sector,” said Ben Wood, the Managing Director of Clicks IT Recruitment.
“This growth is due to an increase in projects that focus on digital transformation, cloud uptake and refreshing core systems.”
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Equally mystifying, says Wood, is the reluctance to hire IT graduates – the lowest level in five years.
“Whilst hiring demand is growing overall, respondents favour contractors over permanent staff. In fact, those organisations looking to hire permanents are less than half the level of five years ago.
“The IT role most in demand is business analyst, which traditionally is among the first skill hired at the start of a project, indicating a strong pipeline of project work.”
Here are all the key findings from the Clicks survey:
The Good:
• 45% of respondents are optimistic about increasing sales this year. Of them, 31% expect the increase to be between 11% and 20%.
• 27% expect to increase their IT budgets this year
• 25% expect to increase their IT staff, with a greater focus on contractors than permanents.
The Bad:
• Salaries are forecasted to increase by just 1.54% – the lowest since the Clicks survey started 15 years ago. By comparison, 2014 salaries rose by 2.5%
• Only 27% of respondents hired graduates in 2014, and that policy won’t change this year
The indifferent:
• The overall ‘health’ of the IT industry remains steady at 61% (100% would mean totally healthy).
