Number of vacancies for IT professionals hits a new six year low.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has released its latest online vacancy report, with both IT relevant categories continuing to fall.



DEEWR Skilled Internet Vacancy Index for IT categories since January 2006.

(Click to enlarge)

Over the year, to July 2012, the number of skilled online vacancies has fallen 16.1 per cent, with the strongest decline in the entire report being recorded for engineering, ICT and science technicians, which are down 27 per cent. The demand for ICT professionals has fallen by 24.6 per cent in the past twelve months, which gives this category the bronze medal, behind construction trade vacancies that were down 25.5 per cent.

The ICT professionals' category has sunk to an all time low, with an index score of 70.4; the engineering, ICT and science technicians category sits at an index of 91, well above its all-time low of 80.2 and the overall skilled vacancy index, which comes in at 86.7. A rating of 100 corresponds to the seasonally adjusted and trended number of vacancies from the report's starting point of January 2006.

In July alone, the engineering, ICT and science technicians' index fell by 7.6 per cent, and ICT professionals recorded a fall of 4 per cent.

Geographically, the reading is just as bad. Only one ICT-related category saw an increase in vacancies from the previous year: technicians in Darwin. The majority were down on modest increases from July 2011, and Sydney continued its overall decline from July 2010.

Across all regions and categories, the Pilbara and Kimberley led the way, with a 9.3 per cent increase on the regional three-month moving average; Dubbo and western NSW came in second, with an increase of 1.3 per cent. The strongest falls were recorded on the NSW north coast with 30.4 per cent, Bathurst and central west NSW with 29.9 per cent, and Hobart and south-east Tasmania with 25.8 per cent.