2009 a goldmine for business analysts, hangover for the rest

The financial crisis has sowed jobs for business analysts across Australia, but stomped out growth in other IT sectors, according to recruitment experts.

However, telecommunication giants and the big banks have created jobs, experts say, through a swath of lucrative core system and network upgrades.

Brisbane government departments have also opened new hires for IT staff, according to the 10th Global Salary Survey from recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, following an “influx” of implementation projects in the first half of 2008.

The report claimed 2008 was a bitter-sweet year for contractors who were made “available and affordable” from a slowing economy and were recruited by the public sector in the latter half of the year.

Business analysts focused on testing, and collating and documenting business requirements will be snapped-up by companies in Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia this year, the report states, while system administrators and network engineers will continue to be in demand.

IT professionals will have a tougher time in Melbourne, according to the report, as falling demand for IT professionals from 2007 is set to continue into 2009.

However jobs will be created through a series of “high profile” enterprise and infrastructure development projects in the state's finance and telecommunications sectors which are set to start this year.

Salaries for IT permanent and contractor staff in Perth will fall for the first time in more than three years, handing the “balance of power” to employers, which the company blames on job cuts following the state's economic boom in 2007.

“Recruitment processes were lengthened as employers had a larger pool of available talent to choose from,” the report states, adding Java and C# skills will be in demand in Perth this year.

The global financial crisis hit NSW hard during 2008, according to figures. Multinational companies sacked staff under orders from foreign headquarters and later hired contractors towards year's end to fill a staff shortfall. The state's major banks helped buck the trend in the state with huge core system upgrades that require skills in testing, business analysis, project management.

Contractors lost the bargaining power to push for fatter pay packets as contracts became scarce, the report claims, although “demand still outweighed supply” in testing, network and infrastructure, enterprise resource planning and solutions architecture. Business analysts, solutions architects and projects managers were snapped up by telcos continuing with huge transformation programmes.

“2009 is likely to be an uncertain year economically, however Sydney remains a skills-short market in IT,” the report states.

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