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

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Transcription

James MacDonald:

– Welcome to another episode of the Newy Tech Jobs Update, this time for September, 2020. If this is one of the first episodes you’ve seen of this series, what we’re doing is looking at activity for the amount of jobs posted in the Newcastle technology section of SEEK.

SEEK tend to be the biggest place to go, and the best indicator for activity in the job scene. So we’re looking at the trend lines, the activity, what’s happening in the Newcastle technology scene. For the month of September, we had 110 jobs posted, in the Newcastle tech scene. So that was up 2% month-on-month and up 6% year-on-year, and that is the first time we’ve seen a positive trend year-on-year or month-or-month since COVID started.

So a really positive indicator to start to say, that technology in general, technology specifically in Newcastle is upward trending and looking really strong, again. It’s been obviously heavily affected by COVID right through the months of February, March, April, but we’re seeing some upward trends more recently. And now we’re looking at the first month, it’s actually up year-on-year.

So last year was a really positive year, and this year we’re getting back up to those levels. Again, so very good signs for the Newcastle technology scene. The majority of those roles are still permanent roles, though we are seeing some longer term contracts. So we’re talking anywhere from six, nine or 12 month contracts.

There are some companies that have got big projects on the board at the moment, are offering longterm contracts. So there are still those in play, but I would say the vast majority of the roles that are still being posted are in permanent fashion. The biggest change we’ve seen year-on-year is who’s actually posting the roles. This past month 74% of the roles being advertised were by private advertisers, last year, that was 38%. So definitely an upward trend for private advertisers. That’s companies posting roles themselves as opposed to recruitment companies posting the roles.

This is continuing the trend that we’ve seen through COVID, Throughout COVID the whole way through definitely, an increase in private advertisers posting roles organically themselves. The change that we’re not seeing is any dip in software development activity, so software developers are by far and away, the most common role being posted on SEEK. And that’s everything from graduates right the way through to, we’ve had a couple of lead developers, principal developers.

So if you’re a developer in this market and you’re not absolutely stoked with your role, feel free to reach out because there’s plenty of opportunity out there at a multitude of different types of companies from agencies, right through to startups and small business through to the big corporates. So software developers, if you’re a software developer candidate, the market is very positive for you at the moment.

Outside of software developers, the biggest uptick we’ve seen in September is the rise in BAs and also QA/testing roles. So a bit of a rise in that QA and testing space in particular, definitely looking for people with automation experience there, and then also BAs. And they’re being driven by a couple of bigger projects going on locally so a bit of rise in BAs. Definitely as significant rise in that sort of QA and testing space. So that’s a wrap for September, 2020. Really positive month, nice to see month-on-month uptick as well as year-on-year uptick.

Hopefully a sign for a strong October, November as we kick in to that sort of quieter period over December January, so I hope you’ve had a successful month.

I hope you are trying to find a nice solid balance between working from home and office, if that is where you’re at.

Until next month, cheers.

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