The Badja Telco ICT Jobs Index survey indicates a severe shortage of telco candidates in a number of areas, backing up anecdotal evidence we have recieved from major telco HR firms.

The survey, which tracks jobs from web based HR companies handling ICT with a Telco focus, found that job numbers in the past week were nearly three times the starting index measured in February this year.

According to a release from Badja, an ICT consulting firm, the massive peak has brought the average job growth up to 2.55% per week since February this year. Last week it had dipped to 2.09% per week in the run up to the election.

The Badja release said it is expected that job index numbers will return to more normal levels over the next few weeks, but the market remains hot with pressure on developers and sales positions specifically customer facing & support roles. Limited supply of these job types is placing pressure on salary levels and is likely to drive up telco pay rates over the next six months.

Badja continues to see a wide variety jobs advertisements repeated many times for some positions indicating a shortage of some employees with the required job skills. There is a very large increase in positions requiring staff with a VoIP background, indicating a huge push to commercialise the product by a wide variety of carriers and ISPs. Other supporting roles requiring some technical knowledge such as Site Acquisition are also remaining hard to fill.

Robert Brand, the director of telecommunications at Badja said the shortage of staff is indicative of the fact that telcos are rolling out new sites all over Australia. "However, there are still a lot of people looking for jobs in the VoIP sector, which means that telcos haven't yet milked the sector dry," Brand said.

To view the index, including the report and graphs go to www.badja.com.