What are the hot IT jobs for 2003?

By Andrew Colley, ZDNet Australia, 15 January, 2003 14:31

NEWS

As Australian information technology professionals continue to struggle with a stagnant job market, recruiting firms are beginning to develop a picture of the IT labour market for 2003. Recruitment consultancy Robert Walters group has predicted growing demand for IT workers with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application skills and continuing high demand for network specialists. The recruiting specialist has tipped that those with experience in PeopleSoft's suite of ERP applications, those of its recently acquired subsidiary, Vantive, and Oracle 11i would be well placed to secure work. PeopleSoft services director, Steven Bool, claimed that a recent surge in sales is behind a shortage of staff skilled with its products, placing the company under pressure to produce human resources to fulfil its clients' needs. Bool said that if it was unable to fulfil its human resources needs locally it would look to the global IT labour market for headcount. In the networking sector Robert Walters is forecasting robust demand for Windows XP support and implementation skills, and consultant-level security expertise. For those in the coding field, Web development is E.L. Consult managing director Grant Montgomery's safe bet. He said Web developers would be in demand throughout 2003, setting aside special mention for Java, Flash, database and Asian character programming experience. According to Montgomery, the increase in demand is tied to accelerated growth in the number of enterprises conducting business functions on the Web. "The direction is going to be on using the Web for more applications with business cases...instead of as a low level brochure Net," said Montgomery. "Because [Web development] merges creativ[ity] and technology it's never been particularly well supplied," said Montgomery. The best employment hunting season for project managers may be as late as April and May 2003. Eddie Liu, director of information technology at Robert Walters, said tech employers may not begin hiring project managers until late Q1 to fill places in projects earmarked for Q2. There appears to be few positive signs for employment growth in the telecommunications sector, where prospects of new job creation remain poor and appear set to stay that way until 2005. Montgomery said the flight of multinational telecommunications operations meant that any prospects for significant job growth is dependent on Telstra, Optus and a handful of smaller telcos. According to Robert Walters few have any plans to make significant investment in new projects in 2003. "Telco is looking quite flat for this year. There's only a few projects going ahead but they are component-based projects for some major GPRS work and UTMS work for 2005," said Liu. Montgomery concurred with Liu saying that there is an over-supply of telecommunications labour and that Telstra, Optus and other smaller players would this year be able to meet their labour requirements without taking on new workers. Other notable predictions in the tech-sector include a marked rise in contract-based employment. Liu said 30 to 70 percent more companies have opted for contract arrangements to curb staff latency. In stand out cases, said Liu, some companies would increase contracting by 240 percent. E.L. Consult plans to release its IT Job index for 2003 by the end of the week after experiencing delays collating employment data.

For all job and work-related news, or to search for a job and get information on training, go to ZDNet Jobs. If you have something to say about work and employment issues say it here at the Jobs Forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

Hello ALL USERS OF THE PIRATE BAY I WOULD PUT AN EXPLANATION ON PIRACY Story Idea ILLIGALE AND SHARING THOSE THAT NET Dissent NOT WELL BUT TO CA...

6 hours ago by dede0202 on The Pirate Bay infringes copyright, High Court decides

do You know that? it can install 4G Ram. So i buy 4g and install It work! I can run call of duty 4,6,7 [Modern war... 1,2,3] Call of duty 1 was...

7 hours ago by Sungwoo on Loose Ends - Upgrading the Aspire One 522

2. Bad idea. Making up patch cables loses you your commission from the cable supplier. 3. If you tidy up, other people can understand where the...

13 hours ago by itsajob on Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls

Now On Sale, Unlocked iPhone 4S / Galaxy Note In Factory Box. Roberto-Techie(UK) ”Now on Sales” Smartphone, Android,Tablets,Gadget &...

16 hours ago by Roberto_Store on Samsung Galaxy S III lined up for sale

Is this classic FUD? One thing I would definitely have notice is a Mozilla threat to stop supporting GNU/Linux.

18 hours ago by Paul Smyth via Facebook on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

I agree with the previous commenter wholeheartedly. I couldn't say it better myself. This is very 'Big Brother'. And while I agree with protecting...

22 hours ago by UnderINK on European e-identity plan to be unveiled this month

Nice to see that Turing's idea of a general purpose computer doing once-hardware-powered tasks in software is now universal ;-) Mary

1 day ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Software with everything

seriously now. I've only bothered to read a small bit of the comments. do me and the rest of the world a favour. stop saying it does not work or...

1 day ago by Jason Burchell via Facebook on Music industry negotiating over 24-bit downloads

Read about it and weep, John Donahoe ... In addition to Visa’s V.me, there is now MasterCard’s PayPass digital wallet soon to arrive; another...

1 day ago by Philip Charles Cohen via Facebook on PayPal takes phone-based payments to the high street

Leslie Satenstein : Where have you ever seen Mozilla even mention this? Firefox is the most popular browser in the GNU/Linux OS, so I don't see...

2 days ago by apexwm on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

SHleG: Do you remember building a clockwork scorpion kit (I'm pretty sure I have a photo of it somewhere) — I think it was called something like...

2 days ago by songmaster on Software with everything

Good I love Yahoo! Their search engine is getting better than Google as of late. I find more of what I want on the first page, and usually within...

2 days ago by Chris Wortman via Facebook on Linux Mint 13 ramps up for KDE release

openhgs has made the point for Windows 8 multiple monitors without realising it! With Windows 7 you have to switch the mouse and so your focus...

2 days ago by PatrickG on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake

Mozilla has threatened to stop supporting Linux. I guess that UBUNTU is going with another browser. I indicated that if Mozilla stops supporting...

2 days ago by Leslie Satenstein via Facebook on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

Much as I abhor Microsoft's licensing practices, this is almost certainly down to purchasing IT equipment via 3rd party consultants - you get the...

2 days ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

@openhgs Windows users have had multiple desktops since Linus started writing Linux. They just haven't shipped as standard because not enough...

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake

@Phil at Cloud4 What, Microsoft gets £1,200 per PC and £1,622 per server? Gosh, I'm amazed....

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

You guys have no idea what is going on at Autonomy. Autonomy could have been a much more profitable organization. The sales operations at Autonomy...

3 days ago by craigsc on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves

How does this impact on dual or multi booting? Seems to me to more or less prohibit this, from Windows 8 anyway. Will Grub 2 recognise Windows 8,...

3 days ago by Moley on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

I don't understand why there cannot be a slight pause during the boot process so the user can press a key. Many operating systems do this, even if...

3 days ago by apexwm on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

What are the hot IT jobs for 2003?

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

The Year Ahead: Skills trends for 2003

IT employers look for business skills

Singapore's tech skills for 2003

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Senior Business Analyst

Technical Project Manager

Software Support Engineer

Inside ZDNet UK

Indoor navigation coming to a mobile near you soon

Software with everything

Asus Transformer Pad TF300T

How IT is ganging up on organised cybercrime

HTC One V: First take

SharePoint deployment: The final chapter

Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Infrastructure / Systems Management

What are the hot IT jobs for 2003?

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features