VentureOne

AUSTRALIA is short of skilled IT workers but, perhaps curiously, that shortage has not led to a repetition of the dotcom blow-out in salaries, recruitment agencies say.

Salaries are high for well-qualified people in an industry dominated by the financial sector, but the steep rises seen in the first half of this year did not continue into the second half, says Andrew Cross of recruitment agency Ambition.

A factor was the subprime mortgage crisis in the US that had made US-based banks more cautious about hiring.

“We have had a few of the US-based investment banks not freezing but certainly slowing down on their hiring,” Mr Cross said. “We do not yet know whether that will have an impact on recruitment going into the new year.”

But salaries across the board were now at premium levels and there seemed to be an unspecified but perceptible cap on the money employers were prepared to pay. “Companies appear to be nervous about further increases creating an environment that could be unsustainable,” he said.

Many companies were now focused on retaining employees by concentrating on further education, lifestyle benefits and professional opportunities.

Talented IT employees were being encouraged to expand their horizons by gaining knowledge of management and the wider business scene.

Employers and peak bodies, such as the Australian Information Industry Association, the Australian Computer Society and the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, were increasing educational programs and promoting IT among high-achieving secondary students as a career as attractive as the more socially upmarket professions such as medicine, law and accounting.

Efforts to improve recruitment in digital media sectors are also under way. The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association announced yesterday support for a series of training and education programs covering online, mobile and other digital channels, including IPTV (television carried over the internet).

AIMIA president Guy Gadney said demand was strong for training and education for newcomers to the industry and also for upgrading skills.

The industry generally felt there was a need to encourage secondary students — boys and girls — to take up IT-related engineering courses at university.

“The Australian Computer Society and the Australian Information Industry Association are both pushing to change the perception of IT and trying to show it as a good career path with high rewards,” Mr Cross said.

Ambition’s annual survey of the industry, published this week, says “good levels of candidates … are arriving from England, Ireland and Scotland, providing the technology market with a valuable pool of resources, but a significant number of Australians are being lured to the UK by long-term visas and sponsorships for longer-term positions.

“And with the pound performing so well it can be difficult for Australian companies to compete for candidates.”

It was now not unusual for Australian expats to stay in Britain for 10 years or more, producing “a transactional deficit for Australia in the international flow of candidates”.

Recent changes tightening the terms of short-term skilled worker visas had “exacerbated the already critical shortages in technology industries”, the report said.