A new survey has found that IT companies expect to hire less staff in the coming quarter while they await the impact of the federal government's spending reviews and monitor the current crisis in the US financial services sector.
A new survey has found that local IT companies expect to hire
less staff in the coming quarter while they await the impact of the
federal government's spending reviews and monitor the current
crisis in the US financial services sector.
IT job prospects are expected to fall by around ten per cent,
according to Hudson's latest quarterly survey of employer
expectations, released today.
The recruitment company found that 34 per cent of IT employers
were looking to hire additional staff in the next quarter, down some
ten points on the previous quarter.
Shane Blandford, director of IT&T sector for Hudson said
there were two major buyers of IT goods and services dragging
confidence down — the faltering financial services market, and the
inertia of the new federal government on major IT spending
initiatives.
Agencies aren't sure what the Gershon Review will
produce
"The feedback from the ACT market in particular is that while
some projects like Immigration's Systems for People are
full-steam ahead, many projects are in a holding pattern,"
Blandford said. "Agencies aren't sure what the Gershon Review will
produce. There is some nervousness within IT areas as to whether to
proceed with projects and certainly it's more difficult to get new
projects approved."
This uncertainty had a flow-on affect for services companies
that worked in the government sector, Blandford said.
"Add to that the woes of the financial services market, another
key IT customer, which has contracted over two consecutive
quarters, and you take two main buying segments tightening their
belts," he said. "It has produced a tightening of belts in the IT
industry's own spending. Many employers I have spoken to have had a
few people left, but are not replacing them for the moment or are
only replacing them with short-term staff."
Blandford said that in past quarters the IT sector had remained
more bullish than the telecommunications sector while the latter
dealt with the fallout of Commander's collapse and delays in the
tender process for the National Broadband Network. But uncertainty
created by the Gershon Review now had now pulled IT down in line
with telecommunications.
"If IT companies know the direction policymakers are going in,
they have the confidence to invest," Blandford said. "When they are
not sure of outcomes, they can't make decisions."
"As soon as we know the direction of the federal government in
terms of its spending and its broadband framework, certainty will
come back to the market and IT companies will make decisions as to
what business they can win."