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Newy Tech Jobs: September 2021 Update

29 Oct 2021 | 04 mins, 53 secs

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

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    James MacDonald:

    – Hey, James MacDonald here from NewyTechPeople, here today with the monthly jobs update for September, 2021. Last month in September, we’d seen 149 jobs posted in the technology category in Newcastle.

    What we’re looking at from a comparison basis, we’re looking at 5% up month on month, 35% up year on year, and 271% up from the absolute bottom of the pandemic. So what we’re saying is from a job activity market, the pandemic is well and truly over. There’s plenty of opportunity out there from plenty of companies advertising for technology professionals in Newcastle and the Hunter. If you’re a technology professional and you haven’t explored new opportunities, or had a look at the market within the last 6, 12 months, I would highly encourage you to do so. The salaries have increased across the board and the opportunities have increased, not only with companies in Newcastle trying to hire locally, also companies fully remote trying to hire Newcastle based talent, which is becoming a bit of a challenge for Newcastle based employers as well. When we look at the type of roles being advertised, there’s an increase in the amount of contracting roles being advertised over the last two, three months. We’re seeing a steady increase month on month with contracting roles being advertised, predominantly, these are in the project spaces still. So project managers, business analysts in particular, more project oriented roles being advertised, which is good. When there’s high contracting and high project based roles, it’s a really good indicator for the strength of technology markets. So very good sign right there. So when we’re looking at the overall stats, it’s a really buoyant market at the moment.

    There are a lot of companies advertising for technology professionals to join their companies. And the most interesting part will be, to watch over the next coming months, is with the restrictions easing and companies returning to work, what that looks like for technology professionals? I think there’s a bit of a mixed range with some companies on the fully remote scale. Then some companies looking at somewhere close to full-time, back in the office, It will be interesting to see how that affects the market. We’re having a look at companies hiring fully remote, outside of Newcastle hiring Newcastle based talent. And Newcastle based organisations hiring fully remote, opening up their workforce or potential workforce, to the whole East Coast, if you’re looking for people working on that same time zone. So I think that’s a really interesting space, to have a look at what companies do in encouraging people, or forcing people back into the office, and how that affects the labor market. Technology professionals in our surveys have indicated a desire for a couple of days back in the office, but still quite a remote space. So one to three days back in the office and then the rest of the time remote.

    I think a lot of the commentary from technology professionals of late has been, “Hey we’ve shown the ability to work remotely, why can’t we continue to do so?” So that’ll be really interesting to see, how that affects the technology community, in particular in Newcastle, where we did have a really local, strong Newcastle local technology community, and how that remote workforce continues to affect the market. The other factor to look at is the time of year. We’re currently in October, I would say traditionally late November, December, is where the job markets tends to quieten down a little bit. We’re seeing no signs of that at the moment. It’d be quite interesting to see whether that has the same effects as it has in previous years, or whether companies, because of the desire to get technology talent on board, just keep firing on all cylinders and doing anything possible to get new people on board. So I think companies will continue to try to hire over this Christmas period. We do, traditionally, have that slow down, but with the difficulty everyone is facing in trying to get quality technology talent across the board and to join your companies, I feel like most companies will continue to try to do that throughout November, December, January period. We always see an uptick in February, but I think that’ll continue right the way through. And it’s on the employer to look at all options and try to get good quality talent across the board.

    We’ll report back next month with our findings from October, but I don’t see too much change. In the market at the moment, we’re seeing a lot of companies trying to hire good quality technology talent. Technology talent across the board in Australia right now is short. When the borders open, potentially early next year, that might change a little with an influx potentially of technology talent coming from overseas on skilled visas. That might help a little. But I think for a while, yeah, we’re going to continue to face a talent shortage. So I’m really looking for companies try to upskill their staff, and do everything possible to get new people on board.

    Thanks again for taking the time to listen to today, we’ll be back next month.
    Cheers.

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