The Olivier Job Index, which surveys "positions vacant" advertisements on commercial job sites, found the number of advertised IT&T positions slid 4.5 per cent in August over July. The slide contrasted with a 4.2 per cent increase in all positions advertised for August compared to the previous month. The IT&T figure represented a fall of 342 advertised positions for the month relative to July, adding to the stock of 11,386 advertised positions that have disappeared since August last year.
"It's the first really positive month in the non-IT sector, and the IT sector has failed to respond," Olivier Recruitment director Robert Olivier told ZDNet Australia. -That industry sector is flat-lining. This week's protest by Deloitte's IT workers over pay cuts of up to 50 per cent is just one sign of the tightness of the industry. If the demand for labour goes down, so does the price."
Olivier claims the August result was worse than the January result. "It's worse because the timing [of this drop] is not seasonal and because everything else seems to be getting better."
The number of IT&T positions advertised has remained relatively steady since falling sharply in January this year. That January figure was the lowest since the Olivier survey commenced in January 2000. Gains made in February and May have now been mostly offset by steady decline in other months.
Despite the dramatic decline since the burst of the tech bubble, the IT&T sector still accounts for the second largest number of job advertisements, capturing 11.18 percent of the market. The largest sector is accounting, which accounts for 16.43 percent of job ads on the Internet. During the Internet boom of 2000, positions advertised on the Internet for jobs in the IT&T sector usually exceeded that of all other sectors combined.
"That reflected a time when you couldn't find people for love nor money in IT," said Olivier. "There were probably a lot of ads that were up all the time, rolled over from month to month and handed to a lot of different agencies." He said the reversal of Internet job ads being dominated by the IT sector was a combination of far fewer IT jobs being advertised, and a number of other sectors advertising on the Internet more.
The Olivier survey confirms trends unveiled in the E.L. Executive Demand Index, which found demand in the information technology sector fell by 34 percent in August, but was still 20 percent higher than in April this year due to strong increases over May, June and July.
Olivier's survey also found that heightened corporate awareness of security issues had not translated into recruitment. The number of advertised positions in the networks, communications and security arena experienced a slight decline in August."There's been a lot of talk about the need for IT security, but it's not reflected in the number of ads that are still coming through," said Olivier. "It's not there in sufficient numbers to compensate for other falls."
Olivier said a more disturbing result were the huge falls in database development and administration, as well as desktop support and help desk. "I've always said people aren't doing a lot of new projects but you still need to maintain your existing systems," said Olivier. He said the sectors had enjoyed a couple of months of growth but were now at all time lows.
However, the information technology sector is still a good one to pursue a career in, according to Olivier. "This is a structural correction - when that is complete, it still has to be the backbone for many businesses." He said that recent government actions to reduce skilled immigration should mop up some of the oversupply.
"The government's actions will help. It won't help demand but it will shrink oversupply," said Olivier.
