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ICT employment at all-time high - but some stains remain

Information Age staff, Information Age

23/10/2007 00:18:49

While unemployment in our ICT industry is at an all-time low at less than 4 per cent, nearly one in five respondents to the 2007 ACS employment survey report being discriminated against because of their age.

It's a continuing trend, and along with sexual discrimination, particularly evident in Queensland.

The young report discrimination too: those under 25 report being unemployed in the last five years (although this may be the delay in getting their first job) while more than a third of the 41-50 age group have been out of work for some time since 2002.

Tasmania reports half its ICT practitioners have been out of a job since then. On the other hand, the Northern Territory reports 100 per cent continuous employment.

Those looking for work have found jobs through print ads, word-of-mouth, the Internet and recruiters - a turnaround from previous years when the 'Net was well in front as the preferred source.

A profile of respondents shows that the generally held belief that the ACS comprises tertiary-educated academics and researchers is wrong: only 56 per cent of respondents have a degree or diploma in any field of study, although 71 per cent have studied in Australia.

More than two-thirds of respondents have vendor or other (non-university) accreditation as their sole qualification, other than experience.

And while they might report age, sex and racial discrimination, 86 per cent of respondents consider themselves committed to the Australian ICT industry.

Executive summary The 2007 ACS survey is the fifth in the series, providing detailed information on the employment outlook for ICT professionals in Australia based upon survey responses. Its aim is to help ICT professionals; those contemplating a career in the industry, and other industry stakeholders, with a useful overview of employment conditions and attitudes in the profession.

Respondents covered the full range of ICT jobs, with a significant concentration of management, strategic, and senior roles. Whilst the geographic profile of respondents does not correlate, and the industry demography is both "overweight" from government and education employees and "underweight" from the ICT industry, it correlates well for ICT staff in non-ICT industries.

The relative seniority of respondents is underscored by the overweight representation of the senior professional grades (Member, Senior Member, Fellow), within the survey respondents.

The response rate of 14 per cent females to 86 per cent males is reflective of the gender composition of ACS membership. Whilst it is lower than the employment rate within the ICT sector, it is consistent with earlier surveys.

Employment The 2007 survey confirms the continuing tightening of the ICT profession labour market. ICT unemployment has continued to decline rapidly over the past four years, falling to a new low of 3.84 per cent. Seventy per cent of those employed are full-time (>35 hours per week), while a further 6.5 per cent are self-employed, with 65 per cent working more than a 40-hour week.

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents to the 2007 survey have worked more than 10 years in the ICT industry in Australia.

Discrimination The 2007 survey found that a significant proportion (19.2 per cent) of respondents reported that they had been discriminated against on the basis of their age. Both age and sexual discrimination was significantly higher in Queensland, and sexual discrimination was also high in Western Australia.

Job-skills The ICT jobs-skills analysis indicates a younger overall age profile for development and technical support, with a slightly older age profile for service delivery, an older age profile for management and administration, and a more even profile for strategy and planning.

Sales and marketing represented a small 2 per cent of respondents, perhaps suggesting a lower than optimum level of accredited ICT professionalism in this group.

Higher proportions of respondents indicated that they mainly operate within design and implementation job-skills. Education and training delivery job-skills continued to decline.

Unemployment Unemployment experience varied significantly by age. Whilst the relatively high unemployment level for the under 30 age group can be explained by the delay for many in this group in gaining their first job, the higher level of unemployment experience for the 41-50 age group is more likely to be derived from a combination of age discrimination and either real or imagined concerns about the currency of their ICT skills. When combined with the reported levels of age discrimination by both ACS grade and job type, this suggests that ICT recruiting practices are failing to access a significant group of older experienced workers within these job-skills.

Profile Only 56 per cent of the respondents have received a degree or diploma in any field of study, and a high 37 per cent of respondents have vendor or other (non-University) accreditation as their sole qualification, other than experience. Also significantly, a high percentage of respondents have entered ICT from other fields, and more than half have worked in fields outside ICT at some stage in their careers.

But, most importantly, over 86 per cent of respondents consider themselves to be part of the Australian ICT industry.

Survey validity The major value of a survey is in its ability to be used to model the group surveyed and to accurately reflect that cohort. It is therefore important to establish the validity or otherwise of the survey data, by comparing its structure to that for both ACS membership, and to ICT professional employment. The response made to the 2007 ACS Survey, at a response rate of 5.6 per cent of members, reflects members' continuing interest in contributing to an important aspect of ACS activities, which is to further the employment prospects of ICT professionals in Australia.

The following comparisons show the relative percentages applicable to the responses, the ACS membership, and ICT professional and technical employment in Australia, based, in the main, on Department of Employment and Work-place relations data.

The geographic profile of respondents does not correlate to that of ACS membership in the state concerned, or to the demography for total ICT technical and professional employment. Regional comparatives are therefore likely to more accurately reflect the position in NSW and ACT and may need to be interpreted with caution in relation to other States and Territories.

The survey response demography is "overweight" from government and education employees, correlates well for ICT staff in non-ICT industries, but is "underweight" from the ICT industry. It should be noted that the ICT industry includes a significant number of telecommunications specialists, a number of whom relate more strongly to engineering professional bodies, so the ICT survey response correlation is closer to the ACS membership profile.

Responses were, however, received from almost every industry sector, with a very strong response from the banking and finance sector within the non-ICT industries.

Respondents covered the full range of ICT jobs, with a significant concentration of management, strategic, and senior roles.

The relative seniority of respondents is underscored by the overweight representation of the senior professional grades (Member, Senior Member, Fellow), within the survey respondents.

The response rate of 14 per cent females to 86 per cent males is reflective of the gender composition of ACS membership. Whilst it is lower than the employment rate within the ICT sector, it is consistent with earlier surveys.

ABS and CIIER data shows 24 per cent of professionals in the ICT industry workforce are female and 76 per cent, male, however DEWR data indicates that 19 per cent of ICT technical and professional employment in all industries is female. The survey analysis following, in relation to gender issues, should be evaluated in this light.

Employment The 2007 survey confirms the continuing tightening of the ICT profession labour market. Survey-reported unemployment has continued to decline rapidly over the past four years (falling from 7.2 per cent in the 2005 survey to 5.1 per cent in 2006, and now to a new low of 3.84 per cent.

Of those employed, over 70 per cent are full-time (>35 hours per week), while a further 6.5 per cent are self-employed.

The well-identified ICT skills shortage is also reflected in the work-load of those employed, with 65 per cent working more than a 40 hour week - so much for work-life balance.

Continuity of employment by respondents to the survey is another indicator of a tight labour market. 62 per cent of the respondents to the 2007 survey have worked more than ten years in the ICT industry in Australia.

The analysis indicates a younger overall age profile for development and technical support, peaking in the 21-30 age-group, with a slightly older age profile for service delivery, peaking at the 31-40 age-group, an older age profile for management and administration, peaking at the 41-50 age-group, and a more even profile for strategy and planning, which, although it does peak at the same point as management and administration, is much less subject to age-group variation..

The process of quantifying likely future shortages in ICT skills groups can be greatly assisted by an improved understanding of age-profiles as such knowledge allows for more accurate projections of the rate of "new" job entrants to the job-skills identified, rather than the proportion normally filled by transfer or promotion from other job-skills.

A simpler way of partially analysing this difference is to identify the average age of respondents by the job function, as in the chart below, and comparing the results to the average across all jobs.

As a general rule, unless the age distribution is such that there are no respondents at all at the lowest age-point, then the lower the average and median age profile for a particular job-skill, the higher will be the proportion of such jobs new entrants do.

Age discrimination and gender issues The 2006 survey found that a significant proportion (20 per cent) of respondents reported that they had been discriminated against on the basis of their age. The 2007 survey reinforced that finding, with 19.2 per cent of respondents claiming that they had experienced age discrimination. There was, however, no significant statistical difference between males and females in regard to age discrimination.

The 2006 survey found discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity claimed by 11 per cent of respondents, with students highly represented in this group. In this year's survey the number was slightly lower at 9.6 per cent, with a similar percentage (9.8 per cent) of students indicating that they had been discriminated against on racial or ethnic grounds.

Interestingly, a much smaller proportion (4.7 per cent) of females considered that they had been the subject of racial discrimination..

The 2006 survey reported that 37 per cent of female respondents felt they had been discriminated against on the basis of sex, compared with 1.3 per cent of males

In 2007, female respondents reported a much lower (but still unacceptable) level of 27.8 per cent, while just under 1.5 per cent of males claimed that they had been subjected to sexual discrimination.

While in 2006 female respondents were more likely to be hourly contract employees or students seeking work, over 70 per cent of the female respondents in the 2007 survey were members of ACS professional grades.

Unlike the 2006 survey, racial discrimination was reported at all levels in 2007, with only 9 per cent of students, (who represented 13 per cent of the total responses on this question), claiming such discrimination. A more disturbing result was the significant variation on discrimination reports when considered by location. Both age and sexual discrimination was significantly higher in Queensland, and sexual discrimination was also high in Western Australia. Levels of racial discrimination were broadly consistent across locations. ICT employment skills Nearly 40 per cent of respondents classified their skills group as "development and implementation", while just over a quarter felt that they could more accurately be described as "management and administration".

Service providers were the next largest group, followed by strategic planners. Sales and marketing represented a small 2 per cent of respondents, perhaps suggesting either a lower than optimum level of accredited ICT professionalism in this group, or a perception by ICT sales and marketing professionals who are ICT practitioners, that ACS does not offer them appropriate networking and professional development opportunities.

ICT skills growth and contraction 2006-07 Higher proportions of respondents indicated that they mainly operate within design and implementation job-skills. Of these, the two largest proportions in 2007 are for Programming/Software development, and Systems Design, closely followed by Analyst/programmer, Database Design and Business Analysis. These are, of course, somewhat complementary job-skills. Whilst the proportion within two of these leading groups decreased in 2007, there was compensating overall net growth in this group of skills.

Significant growth, from a low base, was seen in Systems testing, with Systems ergonomics/design showing the most significant decline.

Management and Administration job-skills are far less volatile than Design and Implementation; however, overall there was an overall slight decline in the proportionate representation.

Strategy and Planning job-skill proportions showed declines across the board, suggesting an increased focus on actual design and implementation in the current year.

Service delivery and Technical support functions also showed net proportional growth, again reinforcing the "actual" rather than "planning" focus. Network support, enterprise architecture and capacity management ( all operational skills) all showed proportional growth. Education and training delivery continued to decline. Unemployment While over 29 per cent of respondents had experienced some form of unemployment at some stage in the last five years, and every age group was represented in this, there appear to be two distinct age peaks: those aged under 30, especially under 25, and those aged 41-50.

While the over 61 group indicates unemployment experience at similar to the under 30 levels, this analysis is taken from a much smaller respondent sample, so more likely to be overstated.

The high level for the under 30 age group can be explained by the delay for many in this group in gaining their first job, while the higher level of unemployment experience for the 41-50 age group is more likely to be derived from a combination of age discrimination and either real or imagined concerns about the currency of their ICT skills.

Surprisingly, there are higher levels of unemployment reported by those respondents normally employed in the normally higher paid roles of management and administration and strategy and planning, rather than in the normally lower paid service delivery and technical support roles.

Of those respondents reporting an unemployment experience in the last five years, women reported higher levels across most job types, with the exception of service delivery and sales/marketing; however, because of the way in which male and female jobs are distributed, the aggregate female respondent unemployment experience was slightly lower than that for males.

When combined with the reported levels of age discrimination by both ACS grade and job type, this suggests that ICT recruiting practices are failing to access a significant group of older experienced workers within these job-skills. It also appears to show a bias against employing women in such senior roles as well.

Location variations do not appear to be very significant, with the two exceptions of Tasmania (which was 20 points higher than the average) and the Northern Territory where there is apparently no ICT unemployment at all!

Surprisingly, the "mining boom" states of WA and Queensland indicated slightly elevated unemployment experiences compared to other respondent locations, as did Victoria too, but smaller response samples may have impacted upon the first two of these results, and the much larger number of graduating students based in Victoria to the last. Professional development Most (94 per cent) respondents had undertaken some form of training over the past three years, with the main types of training being ICT related, followed by personal development and business related training, with a surprising 10 per cent indicating that they had undertaken training outside the ICT discipline.

There was not a great deal of variation in the ranking of sources of training, with every category scoring close to a 50 per cent support level, suggesting that most respondents consider that multiple sources of training are required, and that no one source is dominant.

It was interesting to find that respondents rated tertiary education and vendor/supply training as almost exactly equal in training value to them.

ICT Employers in Australia clearly value the training that their employees receive, but are happy for their employees to make decisions on what training they require, with over 70 per cent of employees of the respondents providing funding support, while just under 60 per cent share the decision making process, and 40 per cent leave it up to the employee.

Respondents, however, continue to report concerns at the challenges faced by them in accessing courses, with nearly 40 per cent having problems finding the time available, while others are concerned about the cost of courses and yet others having doubts about the relevance of training offerings to their required skill-sets. Job search In a complete change-around from the last survey, in which the Internet was considered by respondents to be the best source of new ICT positions, with newspapers and recruitment agencies ranking lowly, the current survey found each of the major job sources, Internet; word-of mouth/networking; recruitment agencies; and newspapers, ranked as very close equivalents.

In answer to other questions, nearly 80 per cent of respondents considered that they need to undertake training/retraining to keep their skills current every one to three years.

Also, while 76 per cent felt that it would be beneficial for the ACS to provide Professional Indemnity insurance as part of its membership benefits (at no additional cost) that would cover members who undertake activities outside of their formal work functions, where they might not otherwise be covered, such as volunteer work, second job, helping friends with computing problems etc. Member profile The diagram above allows us to profile the respondents, and suggests that the sometimes stated perception that ACS is comprised, in the main, of tertiary educated ICT academics and researchers, is far wide of the mark.

Only 56 per cent of the respondents have received a degree or diploma in any field of study, although 71 per cent have studied in Australia, and a high 37 per cent of respondents have vendor or other (non-University) accreditation as their sole qualification, other than experience.

Also significantly, a high percentage of respondents have entered ICT from other fields, and more than half have worked in fields outside ICT at some stage in their careers. What is also surprising is the relatively high reporting of some form of discrimination encountered, on the grounds of one or more of age, race, or sex.

Most importantly, over 86 per cent of respondents consider themselves to be part of the Australian ICT industry.

When the relative seniority of the respondents is taken into consideration, (illustrated by both the length of time in ICT and their ACS grading) this input simply reinforces the view that a rigid and formulaic approach to the understanding of ICT qualifications and professional recognition, or of the paths to entry to the ICT professions, would not recognise the reality of a significant proportion of current ICT senior management in Australia.