Zdnet keeps track of staff layoffs in the IT industry. As usual stories of doom and gloom gets all the attention, however the current situation has little resemblance to the last tech bubble. Sure IT job vacancies have dropped, but history is unlikely to repeat itself, at least not just yet.  In 2002 the ICT vacancy Index stood at 100,  currently it stands at 208.7, a drop of 4.6% from last month but twice the number in 2002. By the way, SEEK lists 21,374 IT jobs waiting to be filled. 

Come what may, employers ought to concentrate more on the difficult task of retaining or hiring the best talent , the very people who can insulate them against a downturn, rather than obsesses about an economic climate that they have little control over.

On that note, the current climate is a great opportunity to stand out and build your employment brand. If a company comes out and declares ‘we are aggressively hiring talent regardless of the downturn’  or ‘times are tough, but we are retaining all our staff’, such actions will create a favourable employment brand that will sticks. It is against what everyone else is doing, but that is the very reason why your company is the best place to work. People remember what you do when the times are hard. 

You would think that an industry facing debilitating talent shortage would offer attractive perks to lure women to join its ranks? The truth is female IT staff continues to be paid much lesser than their male counterparts. And, most people wonder why only 15-20% of the Australian IT industry workforce are female.

Even Wimbledon has done it, it is time for the IT industry to follow suit.  Sure, money is not the only thing, but by remunerating female staff at par with their male counterparts, the industry sends the correct message (perhaps here is an opportunity for the IT industry to buck the national trend) , and it is one less problem for an industry that needs to focus its resources on other issues to fight the skills shortages. There seems to be no other choice. 

Additional resources on women in IT

• Female IT graduates earn less than their male counterparts
• "Women freaks over geeky image" says a Diversiti report
• Women in IT – What are the barriers (Government study) 
• Global Gender Gap Index – Australia ranks 17th (below Sri Lanka)
• Argument to have paid maternity to entice more women into IT
• Few role models for girl in IT
• Introducing Girls to ICT industry
• AWISE’s (Australian Women in IT and Science Entity) presentations
• Harvard Business Review explores why female technologists leaves the workforce
• Debates on why women quit IT continues at Computerworld, and others blame ‘isolation’.

A major economic reality of modern day Australia is almost all industry sectors are plagued by a shortage of skilled staff.

Take a quick scan of the media:

• Mining industry needs 87,000 new workers by 2010
• One in three vacancies by 2012 will be in the property/construction industry
• Regardless of the state of the economy, demand for accounting talent never seems to cease

Not one sector seems to be immune from the scourge.

Faced with a national shortage, major industry sectors are drawing battle lines and bracing for a fight, which is increasingly fought at the gateway of new talent -  universities.  For the IT industry in particular, the fight is not only for the hearts and minds of a new generation of students, but fending off other industries fishing from the same talent pool.

On her part, the average student is armed to the teeth with information – unlike the past, each enrolling new student knows exactly how much she is worth, and what career options each industry offers. At the same time, the range of opportunities and career choices available, locally and globally, to a new generation of students. seems to improve every day.

Clearly, the first major profession to bore the brunt of a flat world (outsourcing), and for other myriad reasons (industry volatility, short-life of degrees, continuous up-skilling, no broad gender appeal etc) the IT profession is almost always faced with an uphill battle to sell itself.  And yet, the IT industry has no other option but to reach out.

MIS is igniting fresh debates on the perennial issue of IT skills shortage in Australia.

It is clear, supply side problems are caused by a combination of myriad factors (I previously took part in a similar discussion here) and rightly so, there is no ‘one solution’ to the problem . Any serious attempt at addressing IT skills shortage, at the very least, will require a collaborative approach by various stakeholders – employers, the business community, professional associations, industry bodies, talent service providers, education & training houses and public policy makers.

The National ICT Career Week is a collaborative attempt at addressing one aspect of the problem. It is a long overdue initiative.