Source: Staffing Industry
Executive Employment Growth Driven by ICT Sector
The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector outstripped every other business and industry sector in the recruitment of executives, with demand in the sector up by +70% in February compared with last year, according to research from executive search firm EL Consult, reports itwire.com.
Demand for executives across all other sectors was also relatively buoyant, increasing year-on-year by +24%. The engineering sector was the other sector, along with ICT, paving the way in increasing executive employment, with a rise of +35% in February from a year ago.
The executive employment increases in both ICT and engineering follow gains in the final months of 2013. ICT led the way in February, assisted by a significant pick-up in all of the large states, while the marketing and financial sectors saw the smallest increase, largely due to only small gains in new government positions.
Grant Montgomery, Managing Director of EL Consult, commented: “The massive increase in Information Technology employment shows we are moving with the times and embracing the newer ‘on-line’ industries. Australia can and is competing at the highest levels.”
“[In] the long-term Australia appears to be moving away from manufacturing and to high technology services and manufacturing based on high technology which takes advantage of our educated population, efficient agriculture and large natural resource.”
“With recent highly publicised closures in manufacturing industries… some good news on the economy could not be better timed. Clearly Australia cannot compete against the emerging economies on manufacturing but strong growth in executive employment is a clear indication that we can and are building a strong service sector.”
According to EL Consult, the executive employment gains in February were broad, with every state and territory recording positive outcomes for the month, led by Western Australia and New South Wales. The Index also revealed that Victorian executive positions increased on the back of improving results in all sectors, particularly engineering.
