The Olivier Online Job Index' seasonally adjusted figures for October revealed a mixed month, with 10 out of the 21 industries surveyed experiencing a fall in demand for over September. Seasonally adjusted demand for IT&T workers fell by 1.54 percent month-on-month, but remained up by 13.1 percent compared to October 2002.
"As a recruiter we knew that the school holidays took their toll on job ads, stalling the market's momentum. There was a lull in the middle of the month," Robert Olivier, director of Olivier Recruitment, said. "Now buoyancy has returned, although not quite as strongly."
"The momentum [of IT jobs] was lost in those first weeks in October, but it did rebound and it rebounded quite well," Olivier told ZDNet Australia .
"Seasonally adjusted I think the trends for IT are still up, so we'll see some positive numbers next month," said Olivier. "The real telling point will be January, February -- if people come back early with a desire to recruit, that's going to look very strong for 2004."
According to Olivier, the strongest performer within the IT&T industry was software development, which saw an increase of 3.95 percent in raw job ads. The big loser was system administration and support, which fell 11 percent month-on-month, although Olivier said this was most likely a "one-off glitch".
Ads for IT&T jobs accounted for 7.07 percent of all online job advertisements covered by the Index, making it the fourth largest industry in terms of online job ads.
Across Australia the majority of jobs were in NSW (41 percent) and Victoria (23 percent), but Queensland is "roaring", accounting for 22 percent of the jobs covered by the Index.
The Olivier Internet Job Index surveys the online job boards of Seek, MyCareer and CareerOne, which together account for almost half of unique visitors to Australian employment Web sites by Australian based users.
