Skills shortages expected to hit over 90% of Australian and New Zealand businesses

Over 90% of Australian and New Zealand businesses believe that skill shortages will impact operations or growth in the next year.

This is according to a new report from the recruitment firm Hays, which surveyed 4,425 organisations across Australia and New Zealand and spoke to 4,581 employees to take stock of salary expectations, career plans, and current priorities.

96% of Australian employers believe skill shortages will impact operations or growth while 90% of those in New Zealand believe the same. Additionally, 60% of Australian and 61% of New Zealand employers are set to increase their permanent headcount this year. Some employers also believe the great resignation will accelerate this year, with 39% in Australia and 47% in New Zealand stating this.

When it comes to salaries, 76% of Australian and 88% of New Zealand organisations have offered higher salaries than planned. This comes as 68% of Australian and 66% of New Zealand employees said they would benefit financially from changing jobs. The top factors driving turnover across these two countries are a lack of new challenges, an uncompetitive salary, and a lack of promotional opportunities.

“Australia and New Zealand are facing a singular skills shortage at a level unmatched in Hays’ 46 years in recruitment,” said Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays Australia and New Zealand.

55% of employers also believe that opening the international border will somewhat ease the shortages but won’t solve the problem, and 24% believe it won’t solve the problem at all.

The top five IT jobs employers need to fill in Australia are business analysts, cloud engineers, full-stack developers, cyber security analysts, and data analysts. In New Zealand, these are project and programme managers, business analyst practitioners, senior software engineers, automation and QA engineers, and DevOps and cloud specialists.

What are the average tech salaries in Australia and New Zealand?

Hays included in its report the typical salary for various tech positions across Australia and New Zealand, some of which are included in the table below.

JobLocationSalary Range (AUD)

Service desk - Level 1Sydney$55,000 to $80,000

Wellington$55,000 to $65,000

Cyber security analystSydney$110,000 to $165,000

Wellington$110,000 to $140,000

Chief information security officer (CISO)Sydney$225,000 to $360,000

Wellington$170,000 to $230,000

Data scientistSydney$130,000 to $260,000Data scientistWellington$110,000 to $150,000