Current IT job market has green shoots of positivity

Some good news with major banks in NZ finally cutting mortgage rates due to inflation starting to come down. And we’re finally seeing green shoots for the first time that food has seen a 0.3% decrease and building costs are down for the first time in 10 years (1/1%) due to easing of the supply chain after covid and more competition in the building sector.

There’s no denying the IT job market has been flat in Q1 & Q2 of this year but there’s change in the wind. 

We’re still seeing a cautious approach to hiring in the market but as we always say - technology can’t stop with new systems having to be upgraded and new features & functionality having to be built in software products to remain competitive in the market. If ever there was a reminder of the importance of good tech, it was watching the after effects of the Crowdstrike update on Friday 19th July causing global carnage.

The contract market has been relatively flat in Q1 of this year but we’ve had some contractors come on board for our clients in Q2 - the last 3 months, which is a very positive sign.

Albeit we have seen fewer contract opportunities than usual this year and more contractors on the market which is due in part to government contractors being cut. This tends to be a cycle, so it’s likely demand for government contractors will come back again but it’s taking some time.

With restructures happening last year & the start of this year companies have been ‘cautious’ to replace roles which has made for A LOT of candidates in the market compared to 18 months ago.

We’ve been speaking with employers who are still keen to use contractors which is a tactic often used in times of uncertainty to lower the hiring and headcount risk. They are a good strategy to de-risk you from on-going costs or getting yourself into having too many staff and having to re-structure which can come at a heavy cost and reputational damage.

Due to the market we are seeing contractors taking opportunities working on slightly reduced rates and some contractors are taking permanent jobs or deciding to take a secondment or break doing some travel etc.

Some of our clients continue to grow in certain areas and if you are job hunting with many other candidates we recommend you get all the job search basics right here.

AI is being mentioned in every meeting we’re currently having and the big takeaways here are devs & technical people are using Gen AI as companion tools. Exploring how they can make their jobs easier by using the tools available in the market like Claude or CoPilot. AI isn’t going to take your job but someone who has progressed and is using new Gen AI tools will - so make sure you’re putting time aside to experiment with new tooling, as always. 

Now if only the Reserve Bank could cut the OCR Official Cash Rate, which many economists are calling for we could see the market start to improve into spring & towards the end of the year :-)

I’m Paul, lover of coffee, dogs, biking, surfing & skiing. Founder & Principal Consultant of Sunstone, an IT Recruitment & HR company specialising in recruiting IT roles within software, web, mobile, blockchain, data, cloud infrastructure, security & networks in Christchurch & South Island of New Zealand.