IT execs hired while others fired: report

A report released today has found that while demand for Australian executives has slid down a further 10 per cent, the IT industry has bucked the trend, showing growth.

The IT sector is buoyant (California Sea Lions on buoy image
by Mike Baird, CC2.0)

Titled the "E.L Executive Demand Index", the report was released by the executive search firm E.L Consult.

"The information technology sector rallied from the falls of the previous month and is somewhat counter-cyclical to the rest of the employment market," said E.L Consult's managing director Grant Montgomery.

"As a growing information technology sector also pulls in applicants from appropriately trained engineering and finance executives, immediate skill shortages and salary inflation are unlikely in the short term," he said.

It's more a pragmatic issue according to Montgomery. He added that it was "pretty typical" for companies that have experienced a period of uncertainty and retrenchments, which tend to reduce a company's capacity to maintain customer service levels to use technology to "bridge the gap".

"Using technology to bridge the gap in service levels is both cheaper and less unpleasant than adding new staff that may have to be retrenched again later," said Montgomery.

However, it's not all peachy for executive IT job seekers, with companies desiring to hire what the report calls the "best and the brightest". Montgomery said that it can be tough for applicants looking for executive roles.

"This is a time that can be of great frustration for candidates because they can spend literally days attending interviews, preparing presentations and the like and then not get positions," he said.

The E.L Index uses data from print and internet sources that are collected from employment publications. The Australian analysis was produced in Sydney.