Ultra Fast Broadband a Booster for ICT Employment

MEDIA RELEASE 17 May 2011
For immediate release

Ultra Fast Broadband a Booster for ICT Employment

Nearly two thirds of New Zealand ICT employers see the Government’s proposed ultra fast broadband as having a positive impact on employment opportunities in the sector, according to a new survey.

The absoluteIT Employer Intentions Survey for May 2011 reveals that around 63% of the 481 respondents believe ultrafast broadband (UFB) will increase employment in the sector by 1-4% (24.22%); 5-10% (23.17%); 11-15%; (8.13%) and over 16% (7.11%).

“While there is still a lot of uncertainty around how and why UFB will impact the ICT employment market, it’s clear that the majority of employers have a positive outlook,” says Mr Burley.

“UFB can potentially have major positive spin offs for Kiwi ICT employers, stimulating interesting and challenging new projects – which will attract talent back - and most importantly, making it easy for Kiwi businesses to operate globally.”

The survey also reveals consistently high employer hiring intentions with nearly 75% of respondents looking to hire in the next 12 months - 48.68% within the next 3 months; 13.5% in the next 6 months and 11.41% in the next 12 months.

Most of the respondents are planning only small scale hiring of 1-2 staff (51.67%), with just over 32% hiring 3 to 5 staff and 10% between 6-10 staff.

“For nearly 30% of employers, new projects remain the key motivator for recruiting. However, there has been an increase of nearly 5.5% in numbers seeking to replace staff, up to 24%,” says Mr Grant.

“So staff churn is on the up as indicated in our January employee intentions survey which revealed a high level of restlessness among employees.”

However, employers are taking more notice of the main reasons talent moves offshore – remuneration, flexibility and job challenge. Around 3.5% more employers (37%) see increased remuneration as key to combating brain drain, followed by 2.8% more favouring advanced workplace flexibility (18.7%) and 17.48% seeing better career planning initiatives as retainer.

“We’re pleased to see employers starting to respond to talent expectations. They’re seeing that remuneration and advanced workplace flexibility are a direct way to compete in a market where candidates are enjoying multiple job offers.”

Mr Burley also says a 4% drop in new projects as a key motivation for hiring among 27.35% of employers is more likely to be a symptom of election year uncertainty than falling business confidence.

“It is to be expected. Many business owners will be waiting to see what happens before making major commitments. The reality is that the ICT sector is the most buoyant part of our economy, so any fall off in new projects is only temporary.”

However, ongoing high demand for talent in key areas remains a concern with the top three talent areas still being business analysts (15.82%), followed by software developers (15.42%) and project managers (13.81%)

“But essentially we’re seeing demand for talent increasing across the board and that isn’t going to change.

“It’s also evident from the survey that managers are working harder, supervising bigger teams without extra resources. This indicates that employers are going for efficiency when they increase their staff.’’

Contract recruitment activity has also continued to grow, up by 2.6% to 27.48%, an increase predominantly focused in Wellington due to ongoing public sector changes, says Mr Burley.

“However, overall we’re seeing very strong recruitment activity and it won’t take much to turn the focus back onto permanent recruiting, which is always an indicator of employer commitment to planning for future growth.”

ENDS

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