A survey conducted by job placement agency Olivier found that November recorded the first decrease in IT job ads placed over the Internet for all of 2000.
Research director Kate van Gelder said the slowdown in IT job placements was part of a general downturn in staff hiring. She said discomfort associated with the GST, the Olympics and the diving Australian dollar, was inhibiting companies from hiring more staff.
-Recruitment is all about confidence. If the confidence isn't there, there's not going to be the recruitment," she said.
She said the IT industry had shed around 4,000 online job ads in the three months from August to November. That period saw a dive from 47,000 IT job ads to 43,000 - almost nine percent. The IT industry's 40 percent marketshare in overall online job placement stayed the same during that period, she said.
Van Gelder attributed the dip in IT job ads to a general employment slowdown in NSW since Sydney virtually closed up shop during the September Olympics. Typically, more than half of all IT job ads were for positions in NSW, she said.
Van Gelder said the continuing IT industry shakeout, resulting from the tech stock rout of February 2000, meant less cash to fund additional staff salaries and fewer dollars to fund employment ads. Leaner advertising budgets were driving more IT job ads online, she said.
The dot-com 'bubble burst' caused 35,000 jobs to be lost in the US over the last 12 months. Van Gelder says the same is expected locally on a smaller scale.
The IT industry was joined by the banking, financial services and insurance industries, which all placed fewer employment ads over the Web in November, according to Olivier.
Van Gelder expects online employment ads will pick up in early 2001, when corporate Australia adjusts to life after the GST and the Olympics.
