IT labor Market

  Education

 

  School attendance is compulsory throughout Australia between the ages of 6

  and   15 years (16  years in Tasmania). Most children start primary school

  at the age of five. Compulsory education  was introduced by Western Australia

  in 1871, with other states introducing similar legislation   around the same time.

  Most schools regard IT very important to a student’s learning process.   According

  to a survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics  71% of schools

  reported that they had a student computer ratio of 15 or fewer students to one

  computer, with 40% having ten or fewer students per computer. The profile for

  students’ computer skills indicated an extremely high level of basic skills and a

  very high level of advanced skills. Over 95% of students surveyed have more

  than half of the skills core to the basic operations of computers, and nearly 80%

  have close to all of them 8 .

 

  A survey conducted by the Australian Information Industry Association

  interrogated  all leading suppliers of IT&T products and services as well as

  major   users. Responses were received from organizations employing a

  total of one quarter of a million people, of whom 55,000 were IT&T specialists.

  The survey predicts that 2001 demand for skilled IT workers will be an

  increase of 29,700, between 2002 - 2003 a further increase of  58,000 and between

  2004 - 2005 a further increase of  81,800. The total predicted increase for the next

  five years is 50% greater than the total of all Australian university graduates for last

  year. There is therefore a high demand for IT professionals. However when the

  question of emigration and immigration of computer professionals is raised,

  there is a dilemma regarding whether the country is facing brain drain or a

  brain gain. Australia produces far too few graduates in IT&T. For the most

  part, those graduates that are produced are well regarded and are often recruited

  to work overseas. There are suggestions that some form of financial disincentive

  (increased HECS being due on leaving the country and reciprocal treaties with

  other countries). On the other hand Australia is also seen as safe haven for many

  IT skilled professionals. What makes Australia a good site is its culture of invention,

  an excellent education system and a favorable tax and wage system. For this

  reason there is a constant debate as to if Australia is facing a net gain or loss of IT

  professionals 9.

  The Australian Computer Society (ACS) released a report by Professor John W.         Houghton at the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies in May 2001 (Houghton,

  2001). This report talks about the IT landscape of Australia.Houghton attempts to

  quantify the impact of the Information, Computers and Telecommunications industry

  (ICTs) in Australia, showing that:

  Up to 680,000 Australians work in ICT and related jobs

  ICT employment and wage levels are growing

  Industry income is around $100 billion a year, increasing at more than 17 per cent

  per year

  Australians are amongst the most intensive users of ICTs in the world (4th in the

  OECD for ICT to GDP)

  ICT-producing industries make a smaller contribution in Australia than other

  developed countries

  Employment

  The term "ICT jobs" includes direct employment in ICT-producing industries, ICT

  jobs in other industries and support jobs.

 

  Figure 1  - How ICT jobs stack up (Source: Houghton from ABS, own analysis)

  Around 235,000 Australians are employed in ICT-producing industries. This is 2.7

  per cent of Australia's total employment and 6.7 per cent of the increase in jobs in

  Australia since 1993. These jobs are higher paying than most: $51,243 per annum,

  compared to the average in Australia of $29,409 in 1998-99.