Informal Survey

[Steve Bennett]

August 2008: I have just looked at job vacancy ads on My Career. Here are the results:

Skill Number of Vacancies

Business Objects 100
Cognos 106
DataStage 23
DB2 (Data Warehouse) 4
Hyperion 80
Informatica 12
Information Builders 0
Microsoft (Data Warehouse) 38
Microstrategy 23
Neteeza 0
Oracle (Data Warehouse) 40
Qlikview 1
SAS 133
SQL Server (Data Warehouse)36
Teradata 21
TM1 52

Business Intelligence 300
Analytics 199
Data Management 131
Data Quality 47
Information Management 119

[JohnnyBgood]

Thanks for posting that - have you thought about adding data from the other major job sites?

Plus salary ranges would be nice!

[admin]

Depressing news about job cuts in the Financial Services Industry in Australia posted here.

[JohnG]

Contrary to the tile of this article things are predicted to remain good in 'our' areas:

Pay to fall as contractors move in-house

Jennifer Foreshew | February 17, 2009

LIKE many technology chiefs, Perpetual operations group executive Matt Pancino has resigned himself to the fact that this is going to be a very hard year.

Australian fund manager Perpetual has already felt the pain of the global economic crisis, reportedly cutting more than 100 jobs in recent months, or about 10 per cent of its headcount.

Pancino admits some job losses were in IT, but will not speculate on future plans.

"I can see it being a very tough year for IT, as all the focus is going to be on cost reduction and managing our unit costs," he says.

Perpetual, part of the battered financial services sector, has signalled it will probably rely more on contract-based and variable resources to scale up and down as projects require.

It has about 120 IT staff.

"The depth of talent now applying is a hell of a lot deeper," Pancino says. "We are seeing an enormous amount of talent out there in the market, so in some respects that is a big opportunity for us."

According to hiring experts, there will be a swing back to contracting as a flexible and safer option for securing staff.

Deborah Howard, chief executive of IT recruitment specialist Diversiti, says there has been a dramatic fall in the hiring intentions of organisations this year.

"We are getting the message that some projects put on hold will start up, but not as big as they were."

Employers, however, are spending more time making hiring decisions.

They used to be concerned about getting the skills on board but are now waiting to find the right person, who must be productive and properly skilled.

The core systems upgrades announced in the banking sector by the likes of the Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank, as well as the roll-out of the national broadband network, will create jobs for technology staff, recruiters say.

Howard is predicting a subdued first quarter this year, which could pick up from March, when more projects start, fuelling demand for contractors.

"Hopefully, there will not be any major crashes and the big clients that hire the big numbers continue to do that," she says.

"There is some suggestion of a little nervousness." In NSW, there is more permanent than contract work, and a squeeze on wages, Howard says.

Contractors accustomed to high demand and who were expecting big salaries are now having to pull back.

"In Victoria, we have had a little drop in our contractor numbers but it has remained relatively stable since about Christmas, which is a good sign," she says.

The roles in demand this year will include project managers, architects and business analysts with technical skills.

Howard says demand is coming from utilities, energy, healthcare and some food services.

Demand is softening in financial, resourcing, manufacturing, construction and vendor markets, according to Trevor Taylor of IT recruiter Taylor Coulter.

He expects senior roles across banking and finance to be reviewed and more redundancies of IT senior management as roles are merged.

This is particularly true in NSW.

"The market is moving towards contract and fixed-term hires as firms increase variable workforce models and reduce fixed costs," Taylor says.

In the ACT, the public sector will favour permanent recruitment, and there will be steady demand from government in South Australia, he says.

A conservative approach in Victoria has led to funds being directed towards business as usual and maintenance activities rather than new projects.

"In Queensland, the market is tightening, contract terms are shortening and there has been a slight fall in salary expectations," Taylor says.

Enterprise resource planning development has become critical in government and the resources sector.

Western Australia is showing a growing trend towards contract employment, he says.

Simon Lynch, national IT director for recruiter Michael Page Technology, says there will be a lot more focus on contractors due to headcount freezes.

More people try to get projects through based on contracting.

"There is private sector hiring, but it is mainly in replacement roles rather than new headcount," Lynch says.

Good contractors will get the price they want, but others may drop 5 per cent.

"I don't necessarily think there will be massive job losses, but there won't be a big push on hiring," he says.

"It will just be status quo - stick with what we have now, and work through the crisis."

An exclusive survey conducted by Michael Page finds maintaining staff morale will be the biggest talent management challenge for technology chiefs, followed by retaining top performers and restructuring or downsizing teams.

The survey, based on responses from more than 200 technology chiefs, shows 63 per cent of organisations expect to maintain staff numbers.

Of the 24 per cent who will reduce staff numbers, 57 per cent will cut by up to 10 per cent of their headcount and 34 per cent by 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

Despite the economic gloom, 58 per cent also expect their business to grow this year.

The South Australian Department of Health's decade-long $375 million electronic health records program is on track and not affected by cutbacks, but its IT head count will remain static.

"The market is more liquid, we can access skills we couldn't before and we don't have to compete as much with other areas, particularly the private sector, which is pulling back," chief information officer David Johnston says.

A statewide nursing system will be rolled out across the calendar year, as well as a clinical information system upgrade, he says.

The state's pharmacy program, which has gone live at Royal Adelaide Hospital, will be completed this year.

Helpdesk consolidation will free up resources, but numbers will increase in other areas such as business analysis, and some technical functions like change management, he says.

"Ironically, the financial crisis may have a positive impact because we were struggling to secure resources to carry out the program," he says. "It is going to have some benefits for us."

There are also expectations federal government recruitment will be stronger this year, after British efficiency expert Sir Peter Gershon review of technology procurement.

The Gershon report included a proposal to slash contract staff in government agencies by 50 per cent over three years to save about $100 million.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship chief information officer Bob Correll says following through on the Gershon review will be top of mind for him.

The department, in the third year of its four-year $495 million Systems for People program, will be heavily involved in major development work. "The implications for our recruitment is that we will be active in the market, but we are looking to rebalance our workforce to increase the proportion of our people who are on staff, rather than working as contractors," Correll says.

A steady, but patchy first half of the year is forecast by Peter Acheson, chief operating officer of IT recruiter Peoplebank.

"We might see an improvement in the July to December half," he says.

There will be strong demand for project skills that deliver on time and on budget in the current financial environment.

"You can't afford to be a CIO who has a project that runs badly over budget or over time," Acheson says. There will be more focus on commercial management of key IT projects.

"I would expect contracting to be slightly stronger in 2009 than it was in 2008, and hiring of permanent staff will be subdued or flat," he says.

Recruiter Candle ICT says there are already signs of rising demand for contractors.

"Companies have realised business has to go on and projects must be delivered, so they can't stop hiring," Candle ICT chief executive David Stewart says.

"They need the people, but they are looking for a more flexible option, so we are seeing a strong demand for contracting."

Stewart expects more job losses in middle management in the first half of the year.

"At the moment there is demand for business analysts and testers," he says.

"This is an indication that projects are starting to kick off."

Skills in demand include .NET, Java, SAP and Agile.

Andrew Cross, managing director of recruitment firm Ambition Technology, says demand will continue for business intelligence professionals.

"People who can identify how to streamline a business and how to get more productivity or profitability from current resources will be highly sought after," he says.

Core banking projects earmarked for this year will drive demand for developers.

"There may be less need for project managers if there is less project activity or projects are driven more from a critical needs perspective," Cross says. "We may not see that until the end of the first or second quarter."

In tighter economic times, organisations will seek some sort of competitive advantage from their use of technology, says Peter Noblet, Australia and New Zealand director of recruiter Hays IT.

He expects more activity in unified communications, virtualisation and electronic document management.

"There will be a continuing emphasis on sustainability and ensuring that businesses are keeping at least half an eye on the environmental impact of technology," he says.

There is a sense that a lot businesses are going back to outsourcing, he says.

"I also see continued use of temporary and contract staff for peaks and troughs, not the use of long-term contractors," he says.