New Study Reveals ICT Unemployment Nearly Twice National Average

ACS Raises Concerns About Future of ICT Sector

Thursday 20 February 2003 - New research by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) has revealed that unemployment in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is running at nearly twice the national average.

The ICT professional society today released the results of the 2002 ACS ICT Australian Employment Survey, based on research conducted amongst ACS members late last year into a range of employment-related issues.

Conducted on behalf of the ACS by Peter Hind, a researcher of many years experience who runs IDC's annual Forecast for Management survey of CIOs, the survey attracted 889 responses from across Australia, revealing that:

• ICT unemployment amongst ACS members is currently 11.9 per cent, almost double the national average of 6.1 per cent;
• Unemployment increases significantly amongst older and more experienced professionals, reaching nearly 13 per cent for those in the age bands of 36-40 and 51-55 years old, although the rate fell for professionals aged between these two periods;
• A significant proportion (43.7 per cent) of those affected come from the traditionally more stable industry sectors of banking and finance, consulting and the public sector;
• Over half (52.3 per cent) of unemployment professionals list their ICT skills sets as being in programming, business analysis and project management; and
• Unemployment is higher amongst women at 12.3 per cent.

Future of the ICT Sector at Stake

ACS National President, Richard Hogg said the survey findings highlighted the need for urgent action by all stakeholders to work together to help grow the ICT sector and create employment opportunities for ICT professionals.

"Politicians of all persuasions, including our Prime Minister, have pointed to ICT as being the future, but it will be a bleak future indeed if we don't take steps to revitalise this key industry sector. How can Australia hope to build up the industries of the future and be globally competitive if we cannot engage those skill sets today?

"The ACS will do whatever it can to assist members in improving their employment situation, and we are talking with industry bodies as well as governments at all levels on broader initiatives designed to stimulate growth," he said.

The report seeks to encourage discussion about possible schemes, outlining a number of proposals such as assistance to help retrain unemployed professionals, an infrastructure to help ICT professionals to network more effectively, and reducing the cost of ACS-provided training.

Mr Hogg said the 2002 ACS ICT Australian Employment Survey was an attempt by the Society to establish statistical reference for the weight of anecdotal evidence of the high levels of unemployment and will become an annual study to provide on-going trends in employment issues. The survey was carried out in September 2002 and the ACS is now gearing up to repeat the program and will initiate discussions with other bodies with a view to possibly expanding the survey base.

"Everyone was aware that 2002 was a difficult year for the ICT sector and we knew that many of our members were struggling to find work in the current industry downturn, simply based on our contact with them. However, we wanted to gain a valid statistical measure of the true impact of the downturn on the ICT industry and the implications in terms of training and skills development," said Mr Hogg.

"Given my understanding that people who are unemployed are typically quite reticent about discussing their position, I think it's reasonable to postulate that the percentage of unemployed could even be higher than these figures reveal," he said.

ACS Responds to Hesitance to Retrain Among Unemployed

One of the surprises of the survey was the result that unemployed professionals, at 68.6 per cent, were less open to undertaking training or retraining than full-time students (76.2 per cent), part-time salaried ICT workers (71.4 per cent) and full-time ICT professionals (69.6 per cent).

"This could be because of the high costs associated with retraining, particularly when one is unemployed and money is tight, and the uncertainty of it leading to new work opportunities. One possible solution for people in this situation might be low-cost loans for retraining, or government-subsidised training programs in areas of identified skills shortages," said Mr Hogg.

"In light of this we are talking to governments about possible funding options. We're certainly considering our responsibility to our members in this regard, with plans to provide discounted access to our Masters-level Certification Program, which offers best-practice education to help them update their skills and enhance their employment prospects. We also offer unemployed members a reduced subscription rate to assist them to retain their membership through difficult times," he said.

"The ACS believes that everyone interested in the health of the local ICT industry must contribute to addressing these problems. That also means that ICT workers themselves must be creative in finding work opportunities, perhaps through the establishment of job pools or skills registers.

"We are currently planning a register of people interested in making themselves available to local universities to work as sessional lecturers. We will also investigate the potential benefits of establishing a broader Skills Register, which could help employers to locate people with the skills they need, while enabling ICT professionals to identify peers who have similar or complementary skills.

"This initiative flows out of our awareness of a small, independent network of professionals that is working to exploit job opportunities by spreading the word about contract work and helping professionals to band together to form project teams. While membership of that network is restricted to alumni of one of the major consulting firms, we believe a national skills register will achieve similar results on a far broader scale," Mr Hogg said.

This media release is available on the ACS Web site at http://www.acs.org.au/news/200203.htm

ENDS

About the Australian Computer Society: The ACS is the recognised association for information technology (IT) professionals, attracting a large and active membership from all levels of the IT industry and providing a wide range of services to its 16,000+ members. A member of the Australian Council of Professions, the ACS is the public voice of the IT profession and the guardian of professional ethics and standards in the IT industry, with a commitment to the wider community to ensure the beneficial use of IT. See the ACS Home Page for more information.

Media Enquiries:

Richard Hogg, ACS National President, Tel: (0408) 549 531, Email: richard_hogg@acslink.net.au

Caroline New, PR Consultant, Tel: (02) 9555 1986 or (0411) 889 456, Email: cnew@acslink.net.au