Shortage of IT workers in Australia to spark demand for higher salaries

Australia, 17th February: IT employers in Australia will have to face the pressure for higher salaries by the current employees as the number of workers with IT skills continues to be in short supply in the nation, findings of a recent survey indicate.

The survey by Chandler McLeod, a workforce specialist, states that IT professionals are of the view that due to looming skills shortages in Australia, they are likely to earn around $175,000 every year.

According to Linda Trevor, an executive general manager of Candle ICT, a recruitment company in Australia, there has been a shortage of around 1400 IT professionals in Australia during the last quarter of the year 2010, findings of the December Quarter Clarius Skills Index reveal.

IT professionals in the country have been facing higher workloads following reduction in the employees in the past year and a half.

Moreover, the employees had been working on lower salaries due to loss of jobs during the global economic slowdown, added Trevor.

But now, due to shortage of IT professionals in the nation, there have been salary offers between five to ten percent witnessed by the firm, Trevor maintained admitting the fact that in some instances, there had been wage offers going up to even 20 percent.

The period of next few months is going to see a higher number of IT workers looking for new job positions with much higher salaries, she stated.

And apart from the IT professionals, skills likely to witness further salary pressures include architects, business analysts and project development specialists, she clarified.

So, employers will be compelled to offer huge salaries in a bid to grab the candidates with required skill-sets in a highly competitive market.

According to Robert Walters of Recruitment consultancy, more than 70 percent of professionals with IT skills are likely to quit their present jobs if they fail to get a rise in their salary in the coming six months period.

And the most vulnerable in this scenario are the IT professionals employed in financial services sector and the banking sector, Walters maintained. They are likely to be followed by employees in the professionals services sector (71 percent) and telecommunications industry (69 percent), Walters informed.