Software development and engineering roles had the highest growth in April, according to the latest Olivier Internet Job Index. Listings for these positions grew 31 per cent during the month compared with the figures for March.
Management and sales positions were up by 19 per cent. Olivier Group director, Robert Olivier, was confident the job market would continue to grow as we head into the new financial year.
"It depends what organisations spend their fresh budgets on," he said. "June is when we will see the market move up again."
Overall the IT&T job market had grown by 44 per cent in the past 12 months from 15,000 to 22,000 advertisements. Software development and engineering advertisements were up by 52 per cent followed by management and sales positions at 34 per cent.
"It's a bubble that will not burst easily," Olivier said. "It's grown steadily. Things knocking the rest of the recruitment market around include petrol prices and interest rate rises. These will affect retail and manufacturing but IT is fairly well insulated against any type of general downturn.
"People are still putting fresh investment into IT projects and there is confidence in the sector, but it still has some way to go before it reaches the height it previously enjoyed in 2000."
Olivier said there had been some surprise performances within the Internet, graphics and multimedia sectors. Job advertisements had doubled since the dotcom burst.
"It is enjoying a bit of a renaissance after several years in the doldrums," he said. "Areas such as gaming, VoIP and podcasts seem to be adding to the worth of online strategies and it is creating more work."
Olivier said Queensland was the strongest state performer, doubling its number of IT jobs.
"We have noticed the whole Queensland market has become a far stronger economy and they're up there in terms of skill," he said. "The salary is also marginally lower and that's why people are trying to grow their IT business there."
