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 presentation presents key demand and supply indicators for ICT skills in a series of charts, with detailed notes to the slides.

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 labour force data in this presentation are current as at January 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 405 800 in November 2009



ANZSCO Code

Occupation

Employed ('000s)

Share of ICT employment (%)

2613

Software and Applications Programmers

90.7

23.3

3131

ICT Support Technicians

40.2

10.3

1351

ICT Managers

35.8

9.2

3423

Electronics Trades Workers

33.2

8.5

2631

Computer Network Professionals

31.8

8.2

2621

Database & Systems Administrators & ICT Security

29.3

7.5

2611

ICT Business and Systems Analysts

22.2

5.7

3424

Telecommunications Trades Workers

19.7

5.1

6212

ICT Sales Assistants

17.8

4.6

2252

ICT Sales Professionals

12.9

3.3

2633

Telecommunications Engineering Professionals

9.9

2.5

2324

Web and Multimedia Designers*

9.6

2.5

2612

Multimedia Specialists and Web Developers

7.7

2.0

3132

Telecommunications Technical Specialists

6.7

1.7

2334

Electronics Engineers

6.4

1.6

2632

ICT Support and Test Engineers

5.7

1.5

3124

Electronic Engineering Draftspersons, Technicians

4.9

1.2

2232

ICT Trainers

4.8

1.2

Total Employment in these ICT Occupations

389.4

100.0

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

Data current as at November 2009.



* 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 November 2009 there were 213 900 ICT Professionals and 35 800 ICT Managers, or 249 700 in the aggregate group of 'ICT Professionals and Managers'. (Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, November 2009; DEEWR trend data). The following shows key labour market statistics for these two groups.

 

 

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