Study: IT talent war looms

Salaries in New Zealand’s ICT sector do not yet reflect the increasingly tight talent market as the industry booms and recruitment activity rises, according to a new survey.

According to the latest absoluteIT Salary Survey, salaries in skill sets such as Solution and Application Architects, Business Analysts and Software Developers have either changed very little or decreased.

“Considering talent is already very thin on the ground and it’s going to get worse, employers will have to review their salary and workplace packages to ensure they can get the best people the market has to offer,” said absoluteIT Director Grant Burley.

“And, we’re going to see a widening of skill set shortages as evidenced by our June Employer Intentions survey which shows demand rising with more than three quarters planning to recruit new personnel in the next 12 months.”

Burley says the latest data confirms that permanent recruitment activity is increasing, reflecting growing market confidence and a surge in demand for IT services from the government. 

Permanent salary entries are said to have increased by nearly 2000 since the April report with 14,539 of the 17,547 salaries being permanent.

Contract/part-time/casual/interim entries had increased by 321 since April 2010 with an overall total of 3008.

The report also highlighted a 1% increase in the past six months of the base median salary from $75,000 to $76,000 as measured against the total 12 month period with the total value of overall employment packages continuing to improve, increasing from $78,000 to $80,000.

“While it is positive to see an overall increase in permanent salaries, it is largely due to the increases in certain skill sets which is offsetting the decline in some of the very high-demand areas. Ideally we should be seeing increases across all skills,” said  Burley.

Australia continues to attract IT talent with the promise of higher pay (median base package $91.560 including 9% superannuation).

Burley added, “New Zealand employers can’t compete with salaries across the Tasman but our strength is that benefits on offer here are significantly more than in Australia. We have 30% of employees enjoying a flexible work arrangement and 29% provided training - almost double what is offered in Australia.”