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Newy Tech Jobs: November 2020 Update

9 Dec, 2020 | 4 mins 47 secs

Here is our market update for the month of November, 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 November 2020. In the Newcastle tech scene on seek in November, we had 144 jobs posted, which was the biggest total since February this year. So it really shows a strong bounce back from COVID, it definitely looks like at the moment COVID is not having an effect or not having a negative effect on our job postings. I would say it’s actually probably having a positive effect from the perspective of there was a lot of companies and organisations who put hiring on hold during the middle of COVID so through that sort of the first April, May, June period, in particular, and now those companies are really trying to aggressively hire and get people on board before the end of the year. Also, a time of the year where if you’re advertising, interviewing and offering right now you’re probably going to have people start at the beginning of 2021.

So a lot of companies trying to do that, to hit the ground running in 2021. To just show how big those numbers are, that’s up 14% month on month so up on October, November is normally a month where you start to peel off but showing more and more growth. Once again on the back of COVID, everything being pushed back a little bit more aggressive right now, and its up to, 34% year on year so that just shows the absolute strength that November has had and a lot of companies trying to hire. A lot of companies trying to hire aggressively.

One tiny little asterisk I will put next it. There was twice in the past month where there was a couple of federal government agencies, put jobs out to multiple recruitment agencies and you see five recruitment agencies post same job on the same day. So that does skew the numbers. It’s not showing that there is obviously five jobs there, it’s one job being advertised by five different agencies. A lot of those agencies are actually based outside of Newcastle that are sort of on those government panels so. Not a great experience for candidates but I think everyone can sort of see what’s happening in those situations so it does skew the numbers up a little, but really, in general, November was a very strong month. Continuing the trend of who’s posting, private advertisers are definitely posting more than recruitment companies at the moment, it’s been the trend throughout 2020, in general, definitely post COVID private organisations definitely looking to advertise and hire themselves more aggressively.

Finally when it comes to the type of jobs being advertised it’s a little bit for everyone actually with 144 ads being posted. We had a little bit in the project space, so in the BA and PM space, which is a nice change we haven’t had a great deal of that throughout 2020. So October, November had a bit of a rise in the BA and PM space.

A lot of those are fixed term contracts, so we’re looking at six month contracts, or six to nine month contracts there. Hopefully those will be extended but a little bit of rise in the contract space there which is nice. There is a little bit in the Sysadmin also Help Desk space and not a great deal and there hasn’t been a great deal of that in recent times, but a little bit of a rise there. A couple of security roles, a little bit of a rise in the DevOps space which is nice. DevOps definitely was really strong last year, We’re seeing a little bit more of that come back again so definitely looking for people who are really technical from that perspective. And then Software Developers again, Software Developers are always in demand in Newcastle we’re so candidate short, it is not funny, we’re trying everything we can at NewyTechPeople here to attract more software developers to the region.

There are some companies now offering remote work, trying to pick up talent from outside of Newcastle. The only challenge with that is salaries, if we’re picking up people out of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. In particular Sydney/Melbourne, salaries are just 20% higher. So you are really looking for solid talent you’re having to pay for it there. That is a challenge again.

On the flip side of that, there are software developers and other tech professionals in Newcastle being offered roles down in Sydney for more money. So that will be a challenge for us all going forward into 2021. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Newy Tech Jobs Update. This will be the final one of 2020. The December results won’t be through till the end of year, so we will talk about them next year. But in general, it was a funny year.

Really high to start with a lot of positive views up until February, a big lull and then a really really strong recovery to the back end of this year, so overall very positive signs for the Newcastle and technology scene going forward. Also, just strong news, I guess the way we have bounced back through COVID, so well done to all of the Newcastle companies that are continuing to hire in this space.

I look forward to a really positive 2021. Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas break, and thanks again for listening.

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