Sourced Quarterly Market Update – Autumn 2018

Welcome to Autumn!

We hope you’re enjoying the remainder of the warm weather as the days start to get shorter ahead of daylight savings. We hope that you, like us, enjoyed the time off over Easter and were able to relax and unwind over the break.

In this quarter update, we look at how the first quarter of the year has shaped up, and what we might expect to see in the coming months.

General Comments

The year kicked off at a cracker pace, with permanent roles rolling over from December, and new permanent and contract roles coming to market from as early as week 2 of January. This was a particularly early start to the year for the contracting market, which typically does not come online until late February/March. Additionally, the flowover work from December coupled with new permanent roles brought forward recruitment. which usually starts to get busy towards the end of February.

There has definitely been a sense of urgency about to get new teams established and running, seats filled to meet project demands, and market optimism on the whole remains positive. From a retention perspective, it’s still a very positive picture for employers, with valued team members broadly choosing not to look at the market and sourcing coming via a range of expat, new migrant, relocation and returning to work talent pools. There has been a small bubble of disestablishments and redundancies resulting in local talent becoming available but this has been only a small percentage overall of our active talent pool.

From a permanent perspective, demand is broad and from junior through to senior/specialist, and from a contract perspective, planning and ramp up of projects is well and truly underway, with a firm ongoing demand for Business Analysts and Project Managers being at the fore.

As mentioned above, we are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region low to steady. This has been a full year trend through 2017.
Within Sourced Walls
It’s been a busy quarter within the Sourced office with, as mentioned, activity at an above average level. We were thrilled to welcome Jess’s new baby, born in February, and otherwise our team has remained very much engaged and stable.

Who’s in Demand
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Project Management, Electronics and Web Development (C#/JavaScript) and Systems Engineering. Coming out of a very quiet patch, Infrastructure roles have been on the rise, with the focus lying in the mid-experienced Windows Sys Engineering areas. We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. Graduate/Junior recruitment has also only been represented in small numbers, with recruitment continuing to be at the experienced Intermediate – Senior level on the whole.

Web Development in the JavaScript and Front End areas has been very busy, as has broader Android/iOS Development opportunities, both permanent and contract.

There are a lot of organisations really pushing on into new technology stacks and pursuing aggressive product growth plans, which has really invigorated the market and introduced some really interesting opportunities.

On the contracting side, this has been heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Project Management as new projects gain traction and/or continue at pace from 2017. We are seeing a number of projects gaining momentum which will look to carry the contracting market through to at least the second quarter, and which may see a movement of permanent employees towards contract and fixed term roles.

General Round Up
Overall, we are experiencing a busier than usual start to the year, with a slight flattening as we see out the quarter, predominantly due to vacancies being filled quickly and teams getting up to speed/new starts inducted. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are high, and as a result we are continuing to grow the market with new talent. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains high, while salary levels remain static.

We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!

Within Sourced Walls

It’s been a busy quarter within the Sourced office with, as mentioned, activity at an above average level. We were thrilled to welcome Jess’s new baby, born in February, and otherwise our team has remained very much engaged and stable.

Who’s in Demand

In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Project Management, Electronics and Web Development (C#/JavaScript) and Systems Engineering. Coming out of a very quiet patch, Infrastructure roles have been on the rise, with the focus lying in the mid-experienced Windows Sys Engineering areas. We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. Graduate/Junior recruitment has also only been represented in small numbers, with recruitment continuing to be at the experienced Intermediate – Senior level on the whole.

Web Development in the JavaScript and Front End areas has been very busy, as has broader Android/iOS Development opportunities, both permanent and contract.

There are a lot of organisations really pushing on into new technology stacks and pursuing aggressive product growth plans, which has really invigorated the market and introduced some really interesting opportunities.

On the contracting side, this has been heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Project Management as new projects gain traction and/or continue at pace from 2017. We are seeing a number of projects gaining momentum which will look to carry the contracting market through to at least the second quarter, and which may see a movement of permanent employees towards contract and fixed term roles.

General Round Up

Overall, we are experiencing a busier than usual start to the year, with a slight flattening as we see out the quarter, predominantly due to vacancies being filled quickly and teams getting up to speed/new starts inducted. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are high, and as a result we are continuing to grow the market with new talent. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains high, while salary levels remain static.

We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!