IT Job Growth Is Booming In (Most Of) Australia

While individual experiences may differ, job growth in Australia is on the increase, according to the latest stats from career site Seek. Interestingly, it’s the east coast thats reaping the benefits, with the ACT, Victoria and NSW posting double-digit gains over 2015.

Image: Ray_LAC / Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0

The Australian Capital Territory topped the list with a 26.3 per cent boost in job adverts, followed by NSW’s 11.6 per cent and Tasmania’s 10.7 per cent.

Compared to 2015, Queensland showed a tiny improvement with a 3.9 per cent increase, but it’s still vastly ahead of poor Western Australia, which saw a 20.1 per cent drop in job advertising year on year.

Graph by Seek

Given the ACT’s job market surge, it’s no surprise “Government & Defence” leads the pack in the chart above, with a massive 55 per cent increase from 2015.

For those interested in the ICT sector, which saw a respectable 10 per cent shift towards the positive, Seek was able to provide additional data:

At a national level there has been extremely strong year on year growth in demand for IT Security professionals (57 per cent), Technical Writers — those who produce easily accessible and digestible content for printed and online documents, such as user guides, manuals, intranet and website pages — (47 per cent) and Product Managers and Developers (42 per cent).

Software and hardware engineers are next in line at 32 and 30 per cent respectively, while the illustrious and highly competitive field of “Other” saw a 21 per cent jump compared to last year.

On a more serious note, demand for consultants has dropped markedly — 17 per cent, in fact — with database developer (-7 per cent) and web development (-4 per cent) the runners-up.

According to Seek, the month-on-month numbers are a little depressed; NSW down half a per cent, while South Australia fell 2.4 per cent, but that’s not so concerning considering the bigger yearly figures.

Really, it’s Western Australia that’s copping the worst of it and according to Seek’s Employment Managing Director Michael Ilczynski, the situation won’t be improving any time soon:

“The decline in job advertising in Western Australia is across multiple industries and we are seeing a rise in applications for each job advertised in the State. This gives us an indication that the unemployment rate for the State is not likely to improve in the short-term,” said Mr Ilczynski.

So how about that mining boom?


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