Australian tech industry wants help to fix skills shortage

Cashed-up tech companies are struggling to fill thousands of well-paid jobs across the sector despite registering income increases of 15 to 20 per cent.

Tech Council of Australia chief executive Kate Pounder says jobs in the industry offer rich rewards. Picture: Lamila Toderas

Cashed-up tech companies are struggling to fill thousands of well-paid jobs across the sector despite bucking flat wage trends and registering income increases of between 15 and 20 per cent.

The Tech Council of Australia, representing companies including Atlassian, Afterpay, Canva, REA Group, Google, Amazon and Optus, has warned that pandemic-induced skill shortages in critical industries and occupations must be reversed.

Ahead of the March 29 budget, the council has urged the Morrison government to fix distortions in the tax system, drive economy-wide investment in software, ­establish digital apprenticeships and help companies set up in Australia.

The council’s budget submission said the government should adopt its targets of one million tech jobs by 2025 and 1.2 million jobs by 2030 under its digital economy strategy to “set a clear, united national mission, and motivate the industry, government and training sector to work together to achieve it”.

“There are thousands of unfilled tech jobs in Australia today. Analysis of Indeed data shows that tech and STEM jobs have been experiencing the longest ­vacancies of jobs in the economy, including in crucial areas such as cybersecurity which had the longest period of vacancy for all roles, and nearly double the average of economy wide jobs,” the submission said.

“Many tech jobs are experiencing wage growth of 15-20 per cent. This is seriously impacting the ability of Australian firms to grow, export and create jobs.”

Council chief executive Kate Pounder said “if you took an entry-level tech job, you’d be paid 32 per cent more than you would if you took a job on average”.

“If you’re working in a tech job you’re probably earning 64 per cent more than someone in ­another job in the economy. Its super well paid. We’ve seen something like 15-20 per cent wage growth. It’s a hugely important thing for all those people who haven’t seen their wages grow.”

The tech sector, which pumps $167bn into the economy and supports 861,000 jobs, has launched a recruitment drive targeting young Australians, women and older workers. Ms Pounder said two-thirds of students training for ICT courses in Australia were from overseas, with more than half leaving after two years.

“There’s a lot of myths about what a tech job is. There’s plenty of tech jobs that aren’t a coder,” Ms Pounder said.

“It could be a designer, it could be a product manager, it could be marketing, it could be sales. You don’t have 860,000 people doing these jobs if they’re only coders. When people understand that, more people will think it could be the right fit for them.”

Canva, which makes most of its money overseas, has more than half of its 2000 staff based in Australia. Atlassian recently committed to hiring 5000 Australian staff within five years.

With 99 tech companies achieving valuations of $100m and 20 valued at more than $1bn, the sector has set a goal to raise output to $250bn by the end of the decade.

Ms Pounder said a major barrier was uncertainty around foreign investment approvals, which could affect the domestic development of AI, quantum computing and space technologies.

As international companies shift away from China and Hong Kong as bases for regional headquarters, there was a “massive ­opportunity” for Australia to cash-in on jobs and investment.