Australian Government - SkillsInfo

ICT skills


Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is one of the most highly developed and cost competitive in the Asia-Pacific region. There is a strong local industry and many international ICT corporations have significant global operations based in Australia.

On this page you can use the following bookmarks to find links to information on skills in the ICT sector – or you can scroll down to the Employment Overview section. 

ICT PowerPoint presentation

A PowerPoint presentation on the current state of the Australian ICT labour market can be viewed by clicking on the link below.  The slides present key demand and supply indicators for ICT skills in a series of charts, accompanied by detailed notes.

ICT labour market PowerPoint presentation

Users who would like to read the notes to the slides should choose the 'Save' option and open the copy saved to their local drive. Alternatively, a copy can be requested from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) by e-mailing Bob Bunnett. The data in this presentation are current as at July 2010.

Employment Summary

There are eighteen significant occupations at Unit Group level (that is, at four digit occupation code level) in the broad view of ICT occupations taken by Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO).  These are set out in ANZSCO's 'ICT Alternative View'.  Many other occupations also include elements of ICT related skills and tasks. The following table shows the number employed and the share of employment for each of these ICT occupations.  Note that when ICT Professionals who could not be coded to specific Unit Groups are included, total ICT employment was 426 100 in May 2010.

ANZSCO Code

Occupation

Employed ('000s)

Share of ICT employment (%)

2613

Software and Applications Programmers

77.0

18.7

3131

ICT Support Technicians

49.7

12.1

1351

ICT Managers

37.2

9.0

3423

Electronics Trades Workers

35.9

8.7

2621

Database & Systems Administrators & ICT Security

33.5

8.2

2631

Computer Network Professionals

32.6

7.9

2611

ICT Business and Systems Analysts

28.7

7.0

3424

Telecommunications Trades Workers

23.7

5.8

6212

ICT Sales Assistants

17.1

4.1

2633

Telecommunications Engineering Professionals

12.6

3.1

2252

ICT Sales Professionals

12.0

2.9

2612

Multimedia Specialists and Web Developers

11.4

2.8

2324

Web and Multimedia Designers*

10.9

2.6

2334

Electronics Engineers

8.7

2.1

2632

ICT Support and Test Engineers

8.0

1.9

3124

Electronic Engineering Draftspersons, Technicians

4.7

1.1

3132

Telecommunications Technical Specialists

4.5

1.1

2232

ICT Trainers

3.2

0.8

Total Employment in these ICT Occupations

411.5

100.0

Source: DEEWR Trend Data based on ABS Labour Force, Australia,Cat no: 6291.0.55.003

Data current as at May 2010.


* ANZSCO Unit Group 2324 is called 'Graphic and Web Designeers, and Illustrators' and includes the specific (6 digit level) occupations of Graphic Designer and Illustrator, both of which fall outside of the scope of the ANZSCO ICT Alternative View.  Census 2006 data indicate that these 'non-ICT' occupations account for approximately 75% of this Unit Group and the above numbers for the ICT component of this group are adjusted accordingly.

 

ICT Professionals and ICT Managers are the two 'core ICT' occupational groups comprising highly skilled ICT workers. In May 2010 there were 218 300 ICT Professionals and 37 200 ICT Managers, or 255 600 (after rounding to nearest 100) in the aggregate group of 'ICT Professionals and Managers'. (Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, May 2010; DEEWR trend data). The following shows key labour market statistics for these two groups.

 

 

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