IT contractor roles taking longer to fill

Average time to fill a contractor role is 45 days in NSW according to ITCRA

Recruiters are finding it harder to fill IT contractor roles as demand heats up according to a new report by the Information Technology Contract and Recruitment Association (ITCRA).

The average number of days it took for a recruiter to fill an contractor role in the ACT went from 45 days in December 2014 to 49 in January 2015.

Meanwhile in NSW, the number of days went from 28 last year to 45 in January 2015. In Queensland, the days increased from 25 to 29.

In South Australia, the number of days it took to fill an IT contractor role went from 20 to 24. Victoria also increased from 33 to 42 while in WA, the days went from 20 to 29.

ITCRA CEO Julie Mills said that in January to March 2015 there was continued demand for contract roles, with recruiters finding it harder to find the right candidates.

“The growth in contracting is seen in the ratio of contractor to permanent roles, which has moved from an 80/20 ratio to an 87/13 ratio in December 2014 to a 91/9 ratio in March 2015. In New South Wales only 7 per cent of advertised roles were permanent,” she said.

The also report found that hourly rates for IT contractors in Victoria and Western Australia dipped in Q1 of 2015.

In Victoria, contracting rates dropped from $162.80 per hour in December 2014 to $112.10 in March 2015. Meanwhile in WA, rates went from $121.24 to $78.50 per hour.

However, hourly rates in Queensland rose from $82.11 to $89.

“The rates decrease is feeding through to recruiter’s margins which we are seeing in our Remuneration & Benchmarking report,” said Mills.

The BurningGlass ICT Job Ads Index which tracks the number of ICT related occupations advertised found that the amount of jobs advertised dropped in Q1 of 2015 from a peak in Q3 of 2014.

“The anomaly in the market indicators could be for any number of reasons including increased competition for specific skills such as in big data and digital, recruiters searching for candidates without using traditional advertising, or employers hiring permanent roles in-house and outsourcing contractor recruitment,” Mills said.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

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