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ICT Trends – Hottest Career Opportunities

IT Sector – Demand for IT Candidates

According to the 2014 Occupation Outlook annual report, aimed at young career seekers, information and communications technology (ICT) is one of this year's hottest career opportunities. A special feature on careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations highlights the job opportunities based on STEM subjects. The ICT sector is expected to provide some of the fastest job growth with employment growing at an annual average of 3.6 per cent between 2011 and 2016, and at 3 per cent annually between 2016 and 2021. A predicted increase in demand for database and systems administrators is also forecast.

The report additionally refers to the top 10 transferable skills that employers look for, according to Business NZ, including communication, an ability to work well in a team, planning and organisational skills, and problem-solving. The emphasis on acquiring the soft skills required by industry to enhance the career prospects of NZ Information Technology graduates has previously been highlighted in the IITP Techblog November edition.

A Hudson report media release (Jan. 2014) notes that the challenge to employers while the NZ employment market remains tight, will be their ability to find the people and skill sets they need to get ahead in the next 12 months. According to Roman Rogers, Executive General Manager, many organisations throughout the IT sector are approaching the time where investment in upgrades or new platforms is a requirement rather than an option. Acceleration in investment in digital-related roles will lead to an increase in demand for IT candidates that includes project managers, business analysts, developers and testers.

Figure 1 illustrates the current job advert numbers, based on a (filtered) search of the Seek ICT website, for the hottest careers/candidates in demand highlighted in these two reports.

Fig.1 ICT Hottest Careers/Candidates in Demand (Hudson Report/Business Day Jan. 2014)

So just how is the overall demand for NZ ICT candidates shaping up for the month of March?

Seek ICT Job Adverts

Good news – Seek ICT job ads for all NZ for March have surged 8 per cent ahead of the same time last year (Fig.2).

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Fig.2 Seek ICT Job Adverts Monthly Trends 2010 –2014 (March)

More good news - Trademe IT job adverts (fig.3) are significantly up by 24 per cent on March 2013.

Fig.3 Seek ICT & Trademe IT Job Advert Trends to March 2014

The monthly Seek ICT job adverts for March (fig.4) have increased for Wellington, up 10 per cent,

while Canterbury is down 22.4 per cent on last month. When compared with the same period in

2013 Canterbury is down 27 per cent, Auckland is up 17 per cent, Waikato is up 114 per cent while

Wellington is almost identical (Refer fig.5 for specific numbers).

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Fig.4 Seek ICT Job Advert Trends Monthly Change for March 2014

Figure 5 provides a detailed record of the Seek ICT job advert trends by region to March 2014.

Fig.5 Seek ICT Job Advert Monthly Trends to March 2014

Conclusion

The current ICT job market trends provide positive reinforcement of the on-going demand for the skilled candidates referred to in the two reports discussed at the beginning of this article. The Auckland region continues to play a leading role in driving the ICT job market, while Canterbury is down 27 per cent on this time last year.

Next month’s newsletter will include salary data based on the Absolute IT January remuneration report.

Note: ITU International Girls in ICT Day 24 April 2014 The Girls in ICT initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a global effort to raise awareness on empowering and encouraging girls and young women to consider studies and careers in ICTs.

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News Bytes: A to Z

Australia – Get creative about technology skills shortage: General Assembly

The Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency produced a comprehensive ICT Workforce Study

last year that offered 16 specific recommendations for broadening and deepening the information

technology skills across the Australian economy. Australia – IT News: Why are Aussie students dropping out of IT courses?

The number of students graduating from Australian universities with a degree in IT appears to be stabilising following a long-term decline, but the domestic IT sector nonetheless faces a key problem: the majority of students signing up for IT degrees do not complete the course.

Europe – Reuters Business: It’s cool to be a geek, EU tells women

The European ICT sector had more than 400,000 job vacancies in February 2014 rising to more than 500,000 in 2015 and more than 900,000 in 2020.

NZ – Absolute IT Remuneration Report: January 2014

A 6.7 per cent increase in the national base median salary is the first notable increase since 2011.

NZ – Herald Business: Research and development: Orchestral Developments

Orion Health has added 300 employees since October for a total headcount of more than 1000.

South Africa - CA Southern Africa unveils CA Mainframe Academy at IT Management Symposium

The CA Mainframe Academy will offer ICT graduates the opportunity to gain certification and enhanced job opportunities in a sector of the industry with rapidly escalating skills shortages.

UK – The Courier.co.uk: Female factor in ICT and Digital Technologies Skills Investment Plan

Scotland-Female participation in the ICT and digital workforce fell by 13% over the decade to 2012.

UK – Computing.co.uk: Skills shortages a challenge to cloud rollouts, say CIOs

A shortage of appropriately skilled staff is holding back organisations' cloud computing initiatives.

USA – Computerworld: 8 Hot IT Skills for 2014

Help desk staffers are coveted, but developers are the hottest commodity of all.

USA – IEEE Computer Society: Top technology trends for 2014 (An insight into emerging ICT job opportunities?)

Big data is generating datasets that are increasing exponentially in both complexity and volume, making their analysis, archival, and sharing one of the grand challenges of the 21st century.

USA – IT Business Edge: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years, which includes a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.