Australia: IT jobs face big chill

The Olivier Internet Job Index for last month shows a 9.7 percent decline in the number of jobs advertised on the Internet, which is less than a quarter of the jobs advertised in the sector this time last year.

“Unfortunately it’s another depressing figure, and it confirms that the unemployment trend for May, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, has continued,” Olivier Recruitment Group director Robert Olivier said.

Olivier says this figure reflects major cuts in the IT&T sector on a global scale and the knock-on effects experienced with Australian telcos, such as the One.Tel collapse.

Overall, only 78,891 jobs were advertised on the Internet this month. According to Olivier, this figure represents a substantial decrease compared to June 2000.

“We certainly aren’t in as good a shape as we were this time last year, but it is nowhere near as pessimistic a view of the economy as the newspaper job ads suggest,” Olivier said.

Olivier research recorded a 35 percent fall in newspaper job ads in the month of May.