IT&T jobs consolidate growth: Olivier

The Olivier Internet Job Index revealed that, in seasonally adjusted terms, IT&T recruitment rose by 1.12 percent in December 2004 over November.

The Index shows that the number of IT&T jobs advertised per week online rose from 8,021 in December 2003 to 14,280 in December 2004. It also showed a 78.04 percent rise in 12 months and a 28.76 percent rise in six months.

Robert Olivier, a director of the Olivier Group observed that the job ads slowdown only came in the last weeks of December and is so far "softer".

Olivier said IT&T was one of the few sectors in the job market that achieved a positive figure for the month. "It is hard this time of the year to make solid interpretations out of it because it is subject to season variations. There has only been a marginal decline in certain sectors in the IT&T industry so I wouldn't read too much into that," Olivier said.

He added that network security and communication online job ads rose by 6.73 percent while database administration positions rose by 10 percent.

Olivier said the industry has been one of the "strongest performers" with a very steady and consistent growth for the last 12 months. He expects the IT&T industry to be the strongest among the 21 industries in Australia in the next 12 months.

"There is nothing really standing in its way. [The industry] is capable of much more. The opportunities have quadrupled compared to a year ago. It is such a shame that the level of undergraduates have gone down since this is a very good place to build a career," Olivier said.

He added that the IT&T industry is ranked fifth against all other industries in terms of percentage increase. Around 10 percent of the 130,000 jobs advertised online are currently from the IT&T industry.