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Here is our market update for the month of April.

As expected the effects of COVID-19 on the Newcastle job market, particularly from March into April has seen a dramatic dip from what we would usually expect at this time of year.

Watch the video below to find the latest stats and trends from the Newcastle tech scene.

Our team at Newy Tech People hope you are all doing well and most importantly staying safe!

Watch the Episode

Transcription

James MacDonald:

Welcome to The Newy Tech Jobs Update for April 2020. Right now, we are still in the middle of COVID-19. We’re still in the middle of restrictions, and the job market has plummeted as expected.

So let’s start with a little graph which will show everything pretty clearly to everyone. Where we’ll start, October, 2019. We’re coming off a really strong June, July, which is always a really strong time for hiring, we lead into November and December where companies really do tend to start to pull back on hiring just coming up into the Christmas period, people not wanting to onboard over Christmas.

Then we take a really strong bounce back during January, February hitting massive peaks, biggest month for job posting in Newcastle Tech Scene in the past two years since we’ve started recording the data that is the strongest month for job postings, we have recorded. And then we fall off the cliff. February really, you can start to see the results falling, March, falling.

Okay, when we’re talking raw data, we are talking 55 roles being posted in the Newcastle Tech Scene in the month of April. That is a small number. That is down 57% month on month and it is down 60% year on year. It is down 72% on February only two months ago. We’re talking a 72% drop in two months on the roles being advertised in the Newcastle Tech Scene. So, obviously not as many opportunities out there for candidates in the Newcastle market at the moment.

There are a lot of companies, that are holding off on advertising right now just because of uncertainty in and around their business, and downfalls in the business turnovers and revenues, also cost cuttings and I think the last part is just some uncertainty regarding that interviewing and onboarding process remotely. Some companies don’t have that set up in place, and aren’t confident to push through with that at the moment. So that’s once again another hesitation regarding, roles not being advertised or pushed forward right now.

What are the type of roles being advertised? Well, they are permanent roles. 92% of the roles being advertised are actually permanent roles. That’s normally 65 to 70% of the roles being advertised permanent and the rest being contract temp. So what it says to me is, if companies are identifying a need to hire at the moment, they are pushing forward with that. But that is in a permanent fashion. So 92% of the roles being advertised are permanent roles. So the contractors and the people that operate under the contract and temp space, not a great deal of opportunity for you out there at the moment. Hopefully that does change.

Well, 69% of the roles were being advertised by private advertisers. That’s normally in the 45-50% range, so once again big uptick from private advertisers moving ahead with advertising for roles. That could be down to a couple of things. A lot of companies cost cutting at the moment, a lot of companies really looking at all expenditures going out at the moment. So, recruitment is obviously a fee. It’s a service that’s being provided for a fee and there are companies that are looking to cut costs at the moment.

Other companies might also see this as an opportunity to try to advertise themselves, to try and pick up stuff they might not otherwise have had opportunity to get. So, you can say it maybe an opportunistic avenue to try and advertise right now. But, big uptick from the private advertisers and hopefully some of them have some success in onboarding new people into their teams right now.

When it comes to the type of roles being advertised, we are looking at primarily the help desk and support roles. 31% of the roles were advertised in that help desk and support space. So, I guess that’s not overly surprising again, we’re looking at a lot of companies right now, working remotely, working from home.

When that happens, you need to have technology in place to enable your teams to work remotely and to have high productivity while working remotely. And that just comes with technical issues, no doubt. Across the board, companies are having some technical issues in getting those, you know, the remote working stations set up, to allow productivity for the people. And to do that you need a tech support team in place. Some companies don’t have that tech support team in place and have decided to onboard or bring that in-house.

Other companies are looking to expand upon their teams to provide more support, because there’s obviously more tickets that are being been shared these days than would have otherwise normally been the case. So good to see that companies are investing in tech support to enable their teams to work remotely.

The other two type of roles being advertised at the higher end, in and around that network and sys admin space. Once again, probably just companies investing in the infrastructure to allow their companies to work remotely. I think this COVID-19 and working remotely has put a big emphasis on that and push companies maybe ahead of where they would have otherwise been. They might not have looked at that working remotely as a full time option previously, COVID-19 has forced that upon them. So they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the infrastructure in place to allow that.

Third most popular role are web developers. Developers are always in need in Newcastle, are always being advertised for, because it is such a candidate short market, I think there is a little opportunistic take on this, as some companies are looking to advertise for those roles now. Maybe try and pick up some staff or some potential employees that might be on the market now where they wouldn’t have otherwise been a couple of months ago.

Really luckily across the board and Newcastle, I haven’t seen too many people laid off in the technology space yet. There is one company in the past week where we’ve lost a rather big percentage of their technology team. So I’m sure most people know of that company. I don’t need to call it out. I just give my well wishes to that tech team and hopefully they’ll be able to nab a new job in Newcastle.

We’re definitely trying to help out a couple of them at the moment and I would like to try to see the tech talent in Newcastle stay local to Newcastle and continue to build our technology teams here. And once we’ve got people in Newcastle, let’s keep them here. So if there’s anyone looking to hire in the .net space at the moment, yeah, reach out to those people. I think there is definitely some really good quality talent at the moment looking for new roles.

So probably the fourth most popular and it’s a long fourth. But there’s been an uptick in rising security roles over the past month. So we’re looking at, I think six roles advertised in the security space in April. So really good to see companies starting to invest in that security space. I think that will be a continual rising space when COVID-19 goes away. More companies investing in security as we move forward and technology teams grow. And there’s a rise in that need that on that sort of security specific route.

Across the board, it’s a very negative month. It’s a negative month on job postings. Not overly surprising though, there’s a lot of companies that have got some uncertainty here. As I said, luckily for the technology individuals there hasn’t been too many losses of roles across the board in Newcastle Tech Scene which is a great thing for our community. And it’s good to see some companies continue to invest in hiring. It’d be good to say that, sort of, continue to turn around over the next few months, who knows how long it’ll last, it will probably depend on those restrictions in place.

I just want to say stay safe to everyone out there in that Newcastle tech community. Hope everyone is managing as best as they potentially can. Looking after their own mental health, as much as anything. Hopefully, you are as tech teams being able to show companies that working remotely is possible. Providing that right technology solutions for the rest of the company to work remotely and continue to push forward.

Hopefully, I have some more positive news to share next month. But thanks for tuning in.

If you’ve got any questions about anything that’s going on in the Newcastle Tech Scene, feel free to reach out 0427 107 796 is my mobile number or [email protected]

Thank you, speak to you next month, cheers.

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