ICT bucks trend to record increased hiring intentions
The information, communication and technology sector remains one of the most positive sectors in New Zealand when it comes to hiring intentions, according to the latest Hudson Employment Trends report.
The report shows that while positive hiring intentions are down for Q4 across most professions, information, communication and technology bucked the trends with a 0.5 percentage point increase, with 37.8% of employers looking to increase permanent headcount and 33.3% of hiring managers intending to increase contract headcount in their ICT teams.
A further 60.7% expected to keep permanent headcount steady, while 58.5% expected contract staff numbers to remain steady.
Across all professions, 62.4% intended to keep headcount steady this quarter.
The only other profession to record an increase in positive hiring intentions for Q4 is financial services.
In ICT the top three contract roles in demand include business analysts, project coordinators and those roles related to project infrastructure – systems engineers, system administrators and technical analysts.
Roman Rogers, Hudson New Zealand executive general manager, says 2014 has been 'the year that New Zealand business needed'.
“Confidence levels have stabilised and employers are pleased to have had a year of consistent performance. They’re feeling more assured about the business environment going into the 2015 year and are now are beginning to demonstrate optimism in their hiring decisions.”
“The unemployment rate has continued to fall, and that backs up the ‘steady as she goes’, consistent but cautious approach to hiring we've seen, as organisations have slowly but surely added headcount quarter on quarter, in order to meet productivity goals and chase targets.”
Overall, contract hiring expectations continue to rise, up 2.1 percentage points to 24.5%, and Hudson expects to see this trend continue as skills shortages increase overtime and employers struggle to fill gaps left by candidate movement and internal promotions.
The company says business analysts are constantly in demand as organisations seek to better understand their customers so that they can deliver a better experience.
Project work is also driving demand for contract resource, with administrative resource being required to get projects up and running quickly and efficiently.
