Sourced Quarterly Market Update – Winter 2018

We hope you’ve been keeping warm and well in this last cold month. It’s safe to say we are all welcoming the occasional bursts of sunshine and hoping for a quick return to warmer weather. It’s been a busy, busy quarter here at Sourced with an almost unprecedented level of activity in the permanent recruitment space, coupled with sustained demand for contractors in the Professional Services space.

In this quarter update, we look at who’s who in the zoo, market activity, what to expect in the coming months, and a general overview of the ‘state of the IT nation.

General Comments

The second quarter of the year ramped up even further on an already busy Q1 with an almost unprecedented level of demand across all IT disciplines. Rather than coming from just one or two key clients, we have had a very large number recruiting across the city, with recruitment being a mix of replacing outgoing team members and growth. Recruitment has been both in response to projects coming on stream and as a result of general business confidence and growth.

From a Sourced perspective, for the first time in over a year, 50% of permanent placements made in Q2 of 2018 were candidates choosing to move jobs within Christchurch. We have noted right through 2017 and into 2018 that levels of staff retention have been very high and we’ve largely relied on candidates relocating to Christchurch from within the country and internationally to keep up with client demands.

Salary has not really come into the equation to a great extent. Given the market as a whole has been very stable over the last year or so this cannot be unexpected, with candidates naturally starting to come out of a cycle of focus and contentment and starting to question ‘what’s next’?

As we’ve commented before, we’re continuing to see an upward shift in candidates moving to Christchurch from both within New Zealand and internationally. We’re finding those new to New Zealand are coming directly to Christchurch rather than via Auckland, and those based in Auckland are working a lot more actively to get themselves to
Christchurch, chasing similar career opportunities and salary levels, with a significantly lower cost of living.

From a contract perspective, as noted above, the level of demand of contract resource has held steady with the predominant demand being in the BA and Project Management space, with a small spike in Infrastructure Engineering/support contracts. Contracts have tended to be reasonably contained, typically in the 3-6 month space and for specific, well framed projects.

Within Sourced Walls

It’s been a very busy time these last three months with barely time to stop and take stock. We recently farewelled Jessica Massey from the Consulting Team who welcomed a wee boy to the world and has chosen to step back from agency recruitment to spend more time with her family. We have also welcomed to the team, Emma, who will be joining us in a Recruitment Support capacity, helping to continue to drive candidate engagement and supporting the great level of client service that we pride ourselves on here at Sourced.

Who’s in Demand

In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Business Analysis, Project Management, Electronic Engineering, Software Development and Test.

The R&D/Electronics space has always been one we’ve covered but has certainly taken centre stage these last few months, and within both our large international clients and smaller startups/emerging tech companies.

Demand for Developers in the .Net space has continued at steady pace, and we have also noted a spike in demand for Technical Business & Systems Analysts, both on a contract and permanent basis. ERP (in particular Dynamics AX) has been in hot demand across a number of clients, both for projects and ongoing support.

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 been represented in small numbers, however recruitment continues to be at the experienced Intermediate – Senior level on the whole.

As new projects gain traction and move through planning and approval processes. We have otherwise seen a variety of roles recruited in ones and twos across Android/Cloud development, Network Engineering, Helpdesk, and Architecture.

General Round Up

Overall, we are experiencing a much busier than usual period with no signs of a slowdown. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are lower than usual, and so this is also driving activity. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains very high, while salary levels remain static.

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