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SEEK Salary Centre Market Outlook

Robert Walters

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Information Technology in Melbourne

The Melbourne IT market is beset by skills shortages. Demand for candidates across the board continued to grow on the back of a strong 2005 and strong overall economic conditions. High business profitability and the sheer volume of project work currently underway and in the pipeline will ensure that this trend continues into 2007. We have seen major transformation programmes commence during 2006, reducing the number of quality candidates available to the general market. The roll-out of Telstra's wireless network, Next G, along with other major institutions, such as NAB, concentrating on infrastructure and systems integration are influential factors in the upward movement of salaries and the candidate short market we have experienced.

Increase in demand across sectors and skill sets was observed with key growth areas including SAP based ERP systems, data warehousing and business intelligence toolsets. Project management, business analysis and systems testing skills, and voice, data and IP based network consulting skills were also in high demand.

Strong demand and subsequent shortages mean that candidates are frequently in a position where they have more than one offer and this has placed further upward pressure on both contract rates and permanent salaries. The challenge ahead for hirers is not only staff retention but staff attraction. Recruiters need to be mindful of advising and educating their clients as to the state of the market on an on going basis, bearing in mind that remuneration alone is not necessarily the only factor to consider when attracting staff.

Despite these challenges, we forsee a buoyant IT recruitment market in Melbourne in 2007.