Both the private and public sectors have begun increasing permanent staff, with the resources boom in Western Australia and Australia's stable economy making it the ideal location in the Asia Pacific.
According to the Candle 2007 market analysis report released yesterday, demand for permanent staff in New South Wales has increased 25 compared to the same period last year, and an ongoing resources boom in Western Australia has led to a stable hiring field for ICT employers.
The report says during the financial year ending June 30, 2006, permanent demand nationwide increased 13 percent compared to last financial year. NSW saw permanent demand increase by 25 percent, with demand for ICT professionals in Canberra the highest ever.
Jane Bianchini, Candle ICT national manager, said the recruitment market in Australia for ICT professionals is mirroring the Australian economy, with a strong resources and project boom instigating a number of key projects nationwide.
"Australia is the place to employ at the moment," Bianchini said.
"As we see more regional hubs located to Australia and New Zealand, Australia is seen as a place potential employers can gain good experience on innovative projects which are on a serious large scale and not small projects by international standards.
"What we are seeing at the moment is not only mining resource companies increase headcount through natural business but a number of organizations that supposedly have a small presence in Australia spreading their wings due to the access we have to Asia. To a lesser extent this is happening in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which are tapping into the market nicely getting solid Australian ICT pros with a strong work ethic."
According to the report, the five top jobs in demand nationally are project managers and administrators, business analysts, application developers with C#, .Net, Java and J2EE skills as well as enterprise architects and test engineers.
VoIP, Oracle, Siebel, security, compliance (in particular Sarbanes-Oxley), ITIL and storage skills are currently in high demand nationally. The banking, finance, insurance, professional services and communications industries are the largest hirers of ICT talent currently in Australia, followed closely by state and federal government.
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