Here is our market update for the month of March, showing you the latest stats and trends from the technology scene in Newcastle.
Hope you enjoy the episode!
James MacDonald:
– Welcome to the Newy Tech Jobs update for March, 2021.
So in March we’ve actually seen a really positive result, having 121 jobs posted on Seek in the Newcastle category for technology. So 121 jobs posted for the technology industry in Newcastle during March. So really positive result. Down 5% year on year which I guess the start of COVID last year, but up 27% on February this year. So we’re seeing a big increase, month on month, which is a positive sign. March is a slightly longer month which should give an increase anyway, but, you know, 27% increase is pretty significant. So nice to see the activity there for both clients and recruitment companies advertising tech roles in Newcastle.
As a whole, what are we seeing in the market? It’s a lot of the same. It’s a lot of activity. A lot of companies trying to hire for tech professionals. This isn’t only tech based companies, but also just companies across the board, hiring tech based professionals, to help drive their companies. And we’re going to continue to see a rise in that. There’ll either be a need for technology professionals in most companies going forward and companies are continuing to invest in that capability.
When we have a look at who’s advertising there is a continual rise in private advertisers advertising more than recruitment companies on Seek in the technology market. There’s a couple of reasons for that. From a recruitment company perspective, I think the quality of applicants from Seek as a whole has diminished over the last couple of years. Technology professionals know that they are in demand. There’s definitely more roles out there than there are professionals for those roles. So technology professionals are being tapped on the shoulder through LinkedIn, through other networks, for opportunities. And I think that’s more successful at the moment than people actually applying for roles through Seek. Technology professionals in general are in demand.
So they’re going to have opportunities whether they’re out there applying through Seek or not. That’s not to say there aren’t quality tech professionals out there applying for roles. It’s just that the numbers or the quality have definitely diminished over the last couple of years. Second reason, I think a lot of companies at the moment are cost conscious. So they will try to advertise a role on Seek themselves before working with the recruitment company. I cannot blame a company for being cost conscious or having a look at their budgets. Again, I think the quality of Seek applicants, you can place roles through Seek, it’s just not as easy as it once was.
When we are having a look at the type of roles being advertised, the rise in projects in 2021 is continuing. So it’s really positive to see, the rise in project managers, business analysts, business systems analyst roles being advertised and recruited. Some of these are on project teams and fixed term contracts. A couple of them are on permanent basis, but the rise in BAs and PMs means that there are companies investing in technology projects which is really positive to see.
Secondly to that and no surprise to anyone, there is a continual need for software development professionals for a lot of companies out there. Software development professionals are in demand. And there are a lot of companies trying to advertise, trying to recruit software developers. I would say to any company looking to hire in the software development space, you have to start to look outside the box. You might have to look at somebody who doesn’t have your exact tech stack experience and they might take some learning to come up to speed.
You might have to look at remote work. You might have to look at other levers you can pull to make your company stand out from the best. So I think software developers in particular do have many options and there are different motivators for different people. I think remote work is one, salary is one, the actual tech stack and projects they will be working on is a third. And between those three, I guess levers or aspects, they are things that can help you become an attractive employer of choice for software developers.
So project work, software developers, definitely, I guess the top two categories at the moment being advertised. There are some speckles in the security space the devOps space and the data space. So it’s nice to see this. Some pretty well-rounded opportunities across the board for tech professionals. They are positive signs for the Newcastle technology scene. So across the board really positive news for March.
Along with that, we’re definitely seeing a lot of salaries increase for technology professionals in Newcastle. I would say our salaries are getting very, very close to on par with the likes of roles being advertising in Brisbane. Slightly short of roles in Melbourne, and Sydney again is that next level up. So I don’t think we compare with Sydney salaries at the moment, but definitely on par with Brisbane and getting closer to Melbourne. So that is a really good sign for tech professionals here locally that they can work in a role local in Newcastle and work on a very competitive salary.
On the salary note, we are actually working on a salary guide right now here at NewyTechPeople. We’ll release that within the next couple of months we’re going to have some salary bandings for roles across the board in technology.
So we will have some information for both employers looking to hire what you’re going to need to be paying people to attract people to your company. And also some information for candidates out there to see where they fit, and making sure that they’re being paid on par with the rest of the industry. So hopefully that information is super valuable for our Newcastle technology scene.
Thank you for your time today. I will be back next month with an update and hopefully more positive news on the activity front with hiring and advertising for technology roles in Newcastle.
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