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Newy Tech Jobs: July 2020 Update

7 Aug, 2020 | 4 mins 54 secs

Here is our market update for the month of July, showing you the latest stats and trends from the technology scene in Newcastle.

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Transcription

James MacDonald:

–  Welcome to the Newy Tech Jobs update for July 2020. This month was actually quite positive. We had 118 jobs posted in the Newcastle technology scene on Seek in July. What that means is up 37% month on month.

So I guess May, June were really negative. Obviously a big hit from COVID. And July has seen a big bounce back by 37%, it’s a pretty significant increase there. July tends to be a really good month for hiring every year. It tends to be a new financial year. New budgets for a lot of companies and along with that comes new projects and head count approval. So that trend has continued even through COVID. So it’s a really positive sign to have some strong numbers in July. In saying that we are still feeling the effects of COVID.

We are down 39% year on year. So July as I said, was a really positive month for hiring traditionally down 39% on this time last year. Whilst we have a positive increase month on month, we are seeing a positive direction as we come out of COVID hopefully. We are still down significantly on last year. So COVID is still having an effect on our industry on hiring across the board, but we are seeing some positive signs in the market right now.

We’re actually seeing a little bit of an increase in the temporary and contract space. So 92% of roles this month were still permanent, but 8% of the roles were, in that temporary fashion or temporary contractors.

We are seeing a bit of a rise there, and that’s been really really low of late. A little bit of a rise in that space, which sort of ties into some of the most popular roles being advertised in the past month were very obviously software developers and help desk, they’re the top two. Business analysts were sort of the third, most popular roles being advertised. A lot of those BA roles are advertised on a contract basis or long term contract basis. So that made up a bit of that chunk, of that 8% of contracting roles there.

A nice little surprise for a rise in business analysts. Hopefully that leads to more and more projects being kicked off and more hiring in the future. A couple of roles that are a little bit surprising over the past month, which we don’t see every month, a couple of really senior data roles or a data architect role, a head of data role. As well as a couple of solution architect roles. So it’s really nice to see that more senior end of town being looked after a little bit. Some good opportunities there for people sort of that more senior end.

The non surprise was software developers being the most popular roles being advertised again. They are extremely hard to recruit for at the moment in Newcastle, we’re definitely candidate short. So for any companies hiring in that space, you’re going to have to offer something over and above to attract good people to your organisation. It might be dollar figure, it might be working conditions, it might be the software that you’re working with. You are going to have to pick something and make that a reason for people to come and join your organisation because software developers are in demand.

For the software developers, there is still a little bit of hesitation in the market, on the candidate front with people not wanting to move during COVID. What I can tell you is there are a lot of longterm permanent opportunities with companies who have very strong futures. So it’s no worries about these roles being turned over, or cut anytime in the near future.

Whilst COVID there’s some negativity around some hesitation in the market. If you are a software engineer, software developer in the market, and you’re considering a new role, but being worried about the market, I can tell you with extreme confidence that there’s plenty of opportunity out there for you at the moment with longterm permanent opportunities.

The last stat that we look at is, who’s actually advertising the roles. 65% of the roles being advertised, were by a private organisation so by actually companies themselves hiring or advertising for their own organisations, 35% being recruitment companies.

Last year that was flipped. Last year was 36% being private advertisers and predominantly the rest being recruitment agencies. I think that is a bit of a trend that we’ve seen through this COVID period, more companies trying to recruit themselves. I’ll be interested to see how that plays out over the next few months given how challenging it is at the moment to hire really quality technical or IT staff in your organisation in particular in that software development field. So that’s a wrap for July 2020.

Really nice to see a positive bounce back from the dip in April, May, June. 37% increase across the board, so positive news. Hopefully we see some more in August fingers crossed that we don’t go into lockdown again, like Victoria is currently experiencing.

Hope everyone stays safe till next month.

See you then.

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