Hiring Trends in IT for Summer 2024 – Quarterly Update

General Hiring Trends in Tech:

Welcome to our fourth jobs market update and review of 2024 – the year that was all about the fixed term contract. We hope you’ve made it through this year in one piece and are looking forward to some well deserved downtime across Christmas and New Year.

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The Sourced team are calling time on this year from Friday 20th Dec, with our offices reopening on January 8th. We plan for some well-earned rest, beach/lake time (ask Liv about her winter Christmas!) and a refresh before the new working year hits us.

Reviewing the year in its entirety, we will take a look at what’s been trending, who’s been in demand/moving and a general overview of the market. We hope this is useful as an update to our TechShapers report which came out in September.

We would love to hear from you if you’re looking for any specific market intelligence. We’re in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.

General Comments

2024 has been one for the books with every type of market possible for short periods. While in 2022 hiring and salaries were at an all-time high, and 2023 was a calmer more considered market, 2024 has been the year of economic contraction, pausing of investment, growth, and generally a reduction in business profitability. The knock-on effect has been a sharp decline in hiring, a significant amount of restructuring as businesses right-size to meet current economic conditions, and record (voluntary) levels of staff retention. This has not been the year to innovate, chase new markets or make bold employment decisions, but a year of hunkering down and making it through.

The tech recruitment market saw salaries plateau and hiring demand soften in 2023, and for 2024 salaries continued to plateau with no significant reduction in compensation on offer. This was also the year of the Fixed Term Contract, as employers took advantage of candidate availability and moved away from the traditional contract or permanent hiring models, to offer fixed term employment –  a lower risk commitment at a lower financial cost.

The year started as it meant to continue (subdued), however, we have still managed to settle into a steady rhythm that continued throughout the year and saw recruitment split fairly evenly between demand for contract, fixed term, and permanent employees.

From mid-year onwards

By mid-year, we were seeing more and more companies restructuring. We must note, a lot of this activity has been right-sizing, and refocusing of business activities after significant investment and transformation through 2021-2022. Most organisations now are in a post-investment settling period, where money has been spent to innovate and improve, and we now move through a benefits realisation phase. In some cases, as we predicted back in 2022, companies did overhire/overstretch, and with the current low market mood, have needed to shed numbers to get back to profitability. We should note that these are in the minority. A lot of our clients have simply exhausted their appetite to grow and invest and now move into a focus on profit return.

The contract market has well and truly dried up as we head towards the end of the year, with Fixed Term Contracts picking up any shorter-term requirements, making most of the available market resources. New permanent roles have been brought to market very tentatively and have almost exclusively sat at the mid to early senior career levels, adding extra horsepower to keep the lights on and technology running effectively.

Typically our busiest markets, the demand for transformation resources – Business Analysts, and Project Support resources has seen a very sharp decline in demand, with only Change Managers bucking the trend. Change Managers have tended to be utilised to ensure prior investment is reaping benefits, or any upcoming investment has the best chance of success. Change Management while still relatively new to the South Island market is fast gaining traction, and will be one to watch in 2025.

Work from home?

In 2023 we were talking about WFH and hybrid working, but 2024 has been the ‘back to office’ year. Very few roles are now offering fully remote, and most organisations have settled on at least 3 core office days, with up to 2 from home.

While our borders are open and a large number of our clients are Accredited to bring in offshore workers, very few have been hired this year, with most organisations feeling a higher-than-usual level of confidence in their ability to source good quality candidates locally. Looking ahead to 2025 we expect these international migration numbers to continue to run low, with a large number of restructured candidates needing to make their way back to employment, before this channel of recruitment will be considered.

Hot Jobs

Intermediate Level

Senior Level

Senior .Net Developer – Backend, API development, C#, SQL, Web. One of our favourite clients continues to buck market trends and grow. This is an amazing culture, workplace, and career development opportunity, working close to the central city. $120-$130k

Senior Level

Who is in Demand?

Hiring Trends General Round-Up

In both Auckland and Canterbury, Jobseekers have not been nearly as active as they were in 2022/3 other than in restructuring scenarios, or contractors who have been let go early. Unfortunately, these two groups make up a significant number of job seekers who need to take a more fluid approach moving to roles that are often not ideal but offer a place to wait out the current market. This has included fixed term roles, part-time roles, lower-salaried or remote roles. Watch this space when the market reignites.

Staff retentions levels (people choosing to ride it out) across 2024 have been at an all-time high, with the majority of roles recruited across the year being for new positions that have been very carefully considered before release or resourcing for short-term pieces of work, typically on a very short term contract basis, or slightly longer fixed term. Where we are recruiting new permanent roles, clients are making sure every box is ticked and are not offering near the flexibility they were in 2022/3 around remote working or flexible work arrangements. Clients really do have the sense of choice and are making the most of this.

Demand has remained steady in the Infrastructure and Change Management spaces, especially as the year has gone on. Salaries have almost exclusively come in under $130k, however over $75k with very little appetite for juniors or later career seniors. Generally speaking, Contract has been well outpaced by fixed term and permanent hiring, with many clients preferring to fill crucial gaps with Fixed Term Contractors while they consider their next move. While new activity has now come to a close with Christmas upon us, we are left to wonder what to expect from mid-late January.

Final words for 2024

2024 has been in favour of the employer, and hiring/employment decisions are being made almost purely on a value for money basis. Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment are still top on candidate’s wish lists, however, it really doesn’t feel as though these desires are featuring in employer considerations.

We will watch with interest as we head into the New Year, but until then, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you take the time to enjoy a relaxing break with family and friends over the festive season.

 

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