Is the party over for IT recruiters?

The recent article published in the Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Is the party over for IT recruiters?’ described the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector as “slow times and belt tightening” stating that it has sent recruiters’ profits plummeting.

Is this really the case though? 

According to a recent published report ‘A snapshot of Australia’s digital future to 2050’ by key analyst Phil Ruthven, commissioned by IBM, Australia’s ICT industry is predicted to grow from a $131 billion sector currently to about $1 trillion by 2050, demonstrating the importance of ICT to the economic and social wellbeing of today’s young people.  Therefore can we not expect this growth transfer on to the ICT recruitment market – surely we can!

Also after recently attending the IT18 conference based on IT recruitment in April, SDP said that the marketplace will be lucrative in the coming years.  However it was outlined that a strategic IT workforce plan will be essential to evaluate approaches to meet priority talent gaps and needs. The last 12 months were described as being a flat market however there is still a shortage of skills; but when we look further afield, most sectors in the recruitment industry experienced static growth over the last year, but forecasts for the year ahead and beyond show steady economic growth, suggesting the hope for opportunities to arise. 

One concurring trait from the conference was that contractors were described as having a huge role in IT, and will certainly continue to do so.  With technology forever developing and evolving that too should transfer onto the talent pool. The Australian IT market still is experiencing a shortage of skills

With the report ‘A snapshot of Australia’s digital future to 2050’ forecasting the IT sector to grow, IT recruiters will have an important role to play as this demand for IT workers grows.  Recruiters see the trends before anyone else, and are therefore able to assist organisations in engaging available workers with the right skills.  This ability will become even more important as the demand for IT workers, and the difficulty of finding them, increases in the lead up to 2050.

Therefore it is even more important to remain open minded about skills transference and ensure competencies and knowledge are maintained, recruiters are partners in this process and should be in the position to inform and coach their candidates on the roles of the future while assisting clients to develop and manage the workforce that will deliver outcomes.

So we ask ‘Is the part over for IT recruiters?’ – No we don’t think so, it is only beginning, if you like the challenge.