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Companies still struggling to meet tech job demand

Companies still struggling to meet tech job demand

Finding talent an issue for 71 per cent of CIOs

Australian companies are still having trouble meeting demand for technology skills, which has resulted in a significant uplift in the need to source talent from overseas, according to a new report.

In its latest market update, recruitment firm Davidson Technology reported a notable increase in demand for contract workers such as project managers, business analysts and functional experts in economies not reliant on the resource sector.

“Skill sets within technology are experiencing wage growth where supply cannot meet demand. This has shifted employee’s expectations in 2015, with higher levels of demand creating an environment where multiple and counter offers to potential hires are more prevalent,” the report said.

The recruiter spoke to more than 100 Australian CIOs last month and although 74 per cent said they planned to hire more or the same amount of staff, a similar number (71 per cent) said finding the right talent was an issue.

CIOs are facing the biggest talent shortfalls in digital and software development (48.39 per cent); and projects and business transformation (51.61 per cent), the recruiter said.

Shortfalls are also being seen in enterprise systems (32.26 per cent), and infrastructure and service delivery (12.90 per cent).

Meanwhile, technology roles are the highest percentage of all role types advertised online in Australia at 10.7 per cent. The NSW economy has shown the most significant improvements in terms of job growth, up 12 per cent from last year.

This is followed by Victoria at 11 per cent and New Zealand at 8.8 per cent, the recruiter said.

New Zealand is outperforming Australia, both economically and in terms of employment, with medium sized firms having the strongest intention to increase headcount.

“New Zealand has a far higher output of technology under graduates and post graduates than Australia, which is expected to help satisfy their increased demand. At the other end of the spectrum, Queensland’s technology workforce has reduced. Overall in Australia, underemployment is expected to trend upwards,” the report said.

Davidson Technology said resource planning is becoming more important than ever when securing top talent, and timing and strategy rather than a reactive approach can make a significant difference.

“Traditional methods of advertising response from the active market is rarely successful these days. Like anything today, it’s all about data. Mining data through social networks and applicant tracking databases in pivotal,” the report said.

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Tags recruitmentskills shortagesocial networksBusiness Analystsit skillsproject managerstechnology skillsDavidson Technologyfunctional experts

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