SkillsMatch Contractor Salary Survey & Analysis March to August, 2012 Produced by ITCRA September 2012
ITCRA Contractor Salary Survey & Analysis Executive Summary Who is ITCRA? ITCRA (Information Technology Contract & Recruitment Association Ltd) established in 1999, is the pre-eminent professional body for ICT recruitment and contract organisations, their professionally accredited ICT consultants, and suppliers across Australia and New Zealand. The Association s vision is to set the direction for the sector, and influence standards and best practice through knowledge, education, benchmarking, business practice and advocacy. This is underpinned by a comprehensive Code of Conduct as well a Business and Professional Toolkits and a unique dataset, SkillsMatch, to support the research program. What is SkillsMatch? ITCRA collects, from a number of its Member companies, data relating to clients position requirements and to the successful candidates. Our companies provide real-time data on open positions, salaries offered, placements made and time-to-fill, to a central database. From there we can bring together various data fields in meaningful, up to date reports. The database is refreshed every day. The data shows real jobs. It does not rely on surveys or on counting advertisements. It stays up to date with emerging ICT roles. What is the ITCRA Salary Survey & Analysis? This ITCRA Salary Survey delivers information on over 80 ICT contract roles and covers key movements in: Placements made Hourly rates Days to fill Contract duration as well as making some predictions for the future. It covers contractor placements made from March to end August 2012. This is a move from our previous Quarterly Reports and will now be released on a half yearly basis. For more information Contact Carmel Barker at ITCRA (carmel@itcra.com) or call on +61 3 8622 4700. SkillsMatch Copyright notice Copyright is claimed by ITCRA Ltd and is available to Members and subscribed (authorised) clients. Use of data by Members and subscribed (authorised) clients is permitted provided the source of data is cited and special permission is given by ITCRA where data is used in a public forum.
SkillsMatch Contractor Salary Survey & Analysis March to August, 2012 THE BIG PICTURE
Trends: National Contractor hourly rates appear to be in a state of flux The trend is not upwards; some rates are increasing while others continue to shrink There is a small shift back towards longer contracts, though this may be temporary While the market remains buoyant, the details suggest that the ICT industry is cautiously returning focus to longer-term projects
Trends: Contractor Placements 254 placements have been made each month on average for the past six months Time to place over the past four quarters has been an average 18.4 days with a slow trend towards shrinkage
Trends: Contract Duration 200 150 100 50 0 Under 12 months 12 to 24 months Over 24 months Contracts of less than one year in duration account for nearly 90% of all initial agreements Contracts of over one year in duration accounted for between 5.2% in March and 11.2% in July
Demand: Industry Snapshot Industry Average Offer Education & Training $ 118,190 Financial & Insurance Services $ 160,706 Government, Defence & Public Safety $ 150,090 IT Services & Software $ 121,380 Mining $ 158,469 All Industries $ 129,071 This selection of major IT consumer industries shows an average annual contractor salary of over $129,000 with education around $9,000 less and financial services offering $30,000 more than the average.
SkillsMatch Contractor Salary Survey & Analysis March to August, 2012 MOVEMENTS
Key Movements In terms of the whole market: Monthly placement volume ranged from 209 in August to 334 in May, with a typical May/June financial year hiring surge Hourly rates in the market ranged from average $22.00 for technical specialists to $155.83 for Consultants Overall there were nearly 1,112 contractors placed between March and August averaging $83.46 per hour
Movements: Placements 400 300 200 100 0 An annual pattern of a peak in Q2 and a trough in Q4 is common especially in Government placements There appears to be a slight downward trend in progress
Comparisons: Days to Fill 25 20 15 10 5 0 Days to Fill Looking at the days to fill by state: Nationally it took 18.4 days to fill a role, dropping from 24.9 days in March to 12.0 days in August Australian Capital Territory registered the shortest average fill time of 5.1 days in May, and the longest of 41.1 days in April
Contracts: Duration Trend July-September Quarter 3, 2011 March to August, 2012 The initial duration of new contracts has continued to shrink, with the duration being inversely proportional to the number of contracts issued. However, there has been a recent slight reversal. 1-3 months 4-6 months 7-12 months 13-24 months 2 years plus
Comparisons: State Incomes States Deepest Discounts ACT Security Consultants earned 49% below the national average for the role New South Wales Systems Engineers 51% below Queensland Communications Specialists 39% below South Australia Account Managers 71% below Victoria Technical Support 38% below Western Australia Project Coordinators 34% below States Highest Premiums ACT Web developers earned 46% above the national average for the role New South Wales Technical Support 55% above Queensland Systems Analyst 156%* above South Australia Desktop Support and Project Managers earned 6% above Victoria Systems Analysts earned 132%* above Western Australia Analysts earned 34% above * yes, more than double
Comparisons: State Rates 10 5 0-5 -10-15 -20 State Comparison to National Incomes When looking at the average deviation from the national for state Contractor Rates: South Australia performed the worst, with incomes an average 18.8 per cent lower than the national average for each role New South Wales performed the best with a 7.8 per cent premium Western Australia was surprisingly one per cent lower than the national but also only hired limited roles
Movements: Rate Increases Looking at roles where the average rates grew between March and August, the standouts were: Analyst Programmer rates growing 20 per cent Architect rates growing 19 per cent Rollout Engineer rates growing 11 per cent
Movements: Rate Declines Looking at roles where the average rates shrunk between March and August 2012, the standouts were: Account Manager rates dropping 42 per cent Quality Assurance Manager rates dropping 27 per cent Data Conversion Lead rates dropping 27 per cent
SkillsMatch Contractor Salary Survey & Analysis March to August, 2012 IN DEPTH
Trends: Overview The market has shrunk slightly Skills in strong demand appear to be those in the delivery of current projects rather than new projects Strongest rate changes have been for specific language skills
Popular Benefits Type of Benefit March to August Flexible Working Hours 8 Overtime Payments 4 Car Park 4 Mobile Phone or Allowance 4 Bonuses or Commissions 3 Car and/or Allowance 2 Source: LiveSalary.com.au
Trends: Volume Roles Role Mar-May Jun-Aug Quarterly Movement Desktop/Network Support 119 121 + 1.7 % Business Intelligence Consultant 113 83-26.5 % Project Manager 87 59-32.2 % Whole Market 566 478-15.5 %
Ranges: Rates for Common Roles Role Range Weighted Average Latest Account Manager $ 44 - $ 112 $ 93.75 $ 74.62 Analyst Programmer $ 73 - $ 134 $ 86.91 $ 95.60 Architect $ 94 - $ 133 $ 122.25 $ 127.03 Business Analyst $ 18 - $ 97 $ 89.50 $ 97.10 Business Intelligence Consultant $ 113 - $$ 150 $ 126.25 $ 139.49 Communication Manager $ 75 - $ 115 $ 86.67 $ 77.86 Data Conversion Lead $ 50 - $ 88 $ 59.34 $ 50.36 Database Administrator $ 65 - $ 75 $ 68.34 $ 65.38
Ranges: Rates for Common Roles Role Range Weighted Average Latest Desktop/Network Support $ 36 - $ 42 $ 39.32 $ 41.92 Developer $ 71 - $ 85 $ 80.30 $ 73.00 Helpdesk $ 28 - $ 48 $ 35.70 $ 28.22 Network Designer $ 58 - $ 113 $ 77.01 $ 99.32 Project Manager $ 98 - $ 114 $ 105.92 $ 106.27 Quality Assurance Manager $ 73 - $ 104 $ 87.75 $ 73.00 Rollout Engineer $ 27 - $ 36 $ 32.20 $ 34.17
SkillsMatch Contractor Salary Survey & Analysis Quarter 2, 2012 SUMMARY
Predictions What Strategic roles will need to prove themselves Why Workhorse roles such as helpdesks are showing consistent rates, while strategic roles like account managers show much greater variance in offers
Predictions Rates for technical roles will creep up while rates for support roles will be pushed down Analysis of the March to August rates shows that positions such as Helpdesk are towards the lower end of the range while rates for roles such as Architect are at the upper end of the range
In Summary From a distance, ICT contracting appears to be performing well in a difficult market The period of treading water is still apparent but there may be some cautious moves towards longer-term planning The market is improving for some roles but not others There is significant regional and industry variability
Major Contributors ITCRA would like to thanks our major contributors to SkillsMatch: The SkillsMatch Contractor Salary Survey and Analysis is supported by ITCRA Gold Partner Jobswire