IT jobs still dropping, green shoots stunted

IT job ads are still falling faster than average despite earlier signs of market improvement, according to the June results of the Olivier Job Index.

Tech jobs fell 1.91 per cent in June compared to May, and were down 56.48 per cent when compared to the year before. This was worse than the average job market decline of 0.85 per cent for the month and 51.24 per cent for the year.

Government figures released earlier this month claimed June ICT jobs dropped by 7.5 per cent compared to May.

The continuing fall comes despite analysts predicting green shoots and recovery for the jobs market.

“We’re not rebounding but the rate of decline is certainly stabilising,” Olivier Group director, Robert Olivier, said.

“I think the reason is because people are stalling on major projects.

“Normally jobs are government or mining driven but there’s no one for IT so I can’t put timing on it,” Olivier said. “Maybe when they roll out the National Broadband Network that’ll push the whole industry back up again but there’s nothing to take the lead at the moment."

Oliver has dropped his earlier predictions of a jobs market bounce back.

“The number of jobs will remain fairly static within 2 or 3 per cent. Compared to previous months of double-digit figures, that’s a good sign,” he said.

But although he isn’t confident of a strong recovery, he claimed the economy had hit the bottom.

“There’s a hope that we’re over the worst but a fear we’re not, so it’s holding us back until we get more signals of optimism,” he said.