Credit: Fotis Fotopoulos on Unsplash
Software programmers and IT business and systems analysts are among Australia's most in-demand occupations despite a decline in overall IT job ads.
According to the federal government’s National Skills Commission’s (NCS) 2022 Skills Priority List, software and applications and programmers are the second-most sought-after skills behind nursing.
ICT business and systems analysts ranked ninth on the top 20 list.
The ranking was based on the internet vacancy index job ads, which NCS said comes from the monthly average from June to August 2022.
The NCS rankings align with data from job advertising website SEEK, which found that programmers and developers were the most commonly listed occupation, followed by business and systems analysts in August this year.
SEEK's September analysis also showed that developers and programmers were the most in demand, followed by business and systems analysts and then software engineers.
However, month-on-month demand for these positions slipped during last month, with declines in listings recorded of 9 per cent, 5 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.
As an industry, IT job ads declined by 5.4 per cent month-on-month according to to SEEK's latest Employee Dashboard report, which is up from August’s fall of 4.9 per cent.
Breaking down the job ads by state and territory, the Northern Territory was the region with the largest decline, recording a drop of 26.6 per cent.
Tasmania followed with 8.8 per cent, with NSW close behind at a drop of 8.7 per cent.
Next was Victoria at 6.8 per cent, South Australia at 6 per cent, Western Australia at 5.7 per cent and the ACT at 3 per cent.
Queensland was the only state to not record a decline in listings, recording a growth of 3.4 per cent.
The IT industry’s drop in listings was largely in line with the decline in all job ads for the nation, falling by 5.2 per cent, a jump from August’s decline of 0.6 per cent.
SEEK Australia and New Zealand managing director Kendra Banks said this was the second time this year to record an overall decline, with all but four industries recording a fall.
“The additional public holiday during the month likely had an impact, as all holidays tend to do, but the market is still very tight,” she said.
“Volumes are higher than this time last year and higher than pre-pandemic level, so we are far from calling an end to the Great Job Boom.”
