Although October’s jobless rate was just 3.7 per cent, jobs platform SEEK this week said the number of advertisements for the highest-paid 20 per cent of jobs, such as programmers and project managers, is now 15 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. But the number of ads for the lowest-paid 20 per cent, which includes administrative assistants, chefs and warehouse workers, has climbed 50 per cent since February 2020.
Ryan Lynch, principal and director of tech recruitment firm iterate, has experienced the trend first-hand.
He told The Australian Financial Review that department heads, general managers, chief technology officers and chief information officers found it challenging to find new roles, as opportunities at the top end of the market dried up faster than for more hands-on workers.
Salary offers for some of these roles had fallen as much as 30 per cent from their recent peaks, he said, while offers for “individual contributors” had remained largely stable.
“It’s probably affected the start-ups, scale-ups and [software as a service] sector more,” Mr Lynch said of the weaker hiring activity. “The continued growth has been more in the corporate sector.”
Contracting on the rise
Another noticeable trend has been the sharp rise in contracting work. Mr Lynch said contract roles accounted for about half of the positions his agency filled in a normal month. But in October, they accounted for closer to 80 per cent.
“Some C-level candidates have taken on more shorter-term contract work,” Mr Lynch said, referring to so-called “fractional” leadership roles. “It’s coming in and being able to advise and provide a strategy.”
In fact, freelancing is how Mr Ansari got his foot in the door at Academy Xi. He did a couple of days of consulting for the company in August before being offered a permanent position in mid-September.
Others, though, haven’t been so lucky. One experienced technology executive, who was made redundant from a C-suite position in May and who requested anonymity, is still on the hunt for a suitable position.
He says he’s applying for two or three jobs every couple of months and is typically invited to discuss one or two of them. But, as companies weigh up future investments and consider restructuring, he’s yet to receive an offer.
“I’m finding it a bit challenging,” he said. Though he’s keen to point out it’s not all doom and gloom.
After being made redundant, he used the unexpected time off to visit relatives overseas and spend more time with his family. And, like most people in the tech industry, he hopes things will pick up again next year.
“We get stuck in our careers and sort of put them on a pedestal, but the redundancy sort of put that out of whack and forced a bit of perspective into that,” he said.
“I’m very driven, and I’m very focused on my career, and I want to be successful. But I think there’s more to life than just a successful career.”
