Majority of tech jobs are contract

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MORE than 80 per cent of all information technology jobs advertised in the past two years have been for contract positions, a study shows.

The best-paid contract project managers command up to $120 an hour.
Contract rates for software testers are up to $100 an hour, trainers and sales consultants earn up to $95 an hour, and senior analyst programmers can ask for up to $90 an hour.

The findings come from the Icon Index Internet Report Quarter 4, 2004, which examines online advertising data to detect trends in technical skills, positions and salaries.

The percentage of contract ads was highest in the ACT (95 per cent), followed by followed by NSW (93 per cent)Victoria and Queensland (both 90 per cent).

South Australia's contract roles rose to 90 per cent in the second half of 2004 after beginning the year at 80 per cent, and Western Australia averaged 80 per cent in 2003-04.

Icon regional business director Baldev Bedi said the sector had become more project-based, using just-in-time teams, which focused on delivery and disbanded when a particular phase of a project was completed.

The leading hi-tech job group in 2004 was technical/engineering and the top roles in the last quarter included system developer, system integrator, systems engineer, software engineer, procurement engineer and technical consultant.

The second most popular job group was support, and top roles included support officer, trainer, help desk officer, systems administrator and database administrator.

Permanent technical roles securing the highest annual salary included software engineers (up to $240,000), sales consultants (up to $180,000), project managers (up to $110,000) and systems developers (up to $105,000).

The research finds vendor skills were most sought after in 2004 and demand is expected to continue for Java and Microsoft .NET Suite, along with Cisco, SAP and Oracle.

Internet and languages, followed by software, application development, operating system/server, database and testing were the next most desired skills.

New skills to join the top 30 in 2004 included helpdesk, systems development methodology and software development lifecycle.

Candle ICT NSW general manager Peter Zonnevylle said information technology recruitment was extremely "contract focused and project based" last year, but had begun to swing back.

"I think what we have seen in the last three to four months, which this index does not show, is a shift back towards permanent requirements again," he said.

[ Last edited by horseanddragon on 2005-2-23 at 03:19 PM ]

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