ICT: skills shortage still an issue

A joint survey by NZICT and the Ministry of Economic Development has found that many New Zealand ICT employers are still facing a skills shortage, and say that hiring difficulties have had a negative impact in their businesses.

A total of 83% of respondents said problems with recruiting skilled workers have had either a major or medium impact on their business and 39% of companies said that they had experienced difficulties recruiting for technical roles in the past six months.

Nearly a third of all hires made by the respondents of the survey are coming from outside New Zealand, showing that looking overseas for skilled workers is one of the ways companies are using to address shortages.

According to the survey respondents, the most in-demand skill sets in the ICT sector are project managers, network and systems engineers, software engineers, business analysts, business development managers and account managers.