The latest national jobs report has revealed a near 60% decline in demand for technology professionals in the last year, as AI pushes coders out of work.
New Zealand's Peak Body for Recruitment and Staffing (RCSA) report for 2023 revealed the country's overall National Job Index plummeted by 30.5% over 12 months.
The prospects were particularly tough for IT professionals such as coders, as demand fell by 58.3%.
Technology professionals had enjoyed an unprecedented boom during Covid-19, but had since experienced a cooling off as AI impacted how organisations hired.
RCSA council member Rob Woodward said IT work sector was developing "at speed" and only the most motivated workers would keep up.
"AI is also not helping the situation. It is starting to take jobs away from employees with core skills like coding. It makes it even more important that professionals prioritise self-development and upskill.
"With AI, we are moving into an era where employers are going to start valuing the heart over the brain. Innovation, individuality and the ability to think beyond an algorithm are becoming vital skills," he said.
The good news was that the changes in the IT sector hadn't resulted in huge numbers of people out of jobs.
"This has not resulted in high unemployment amongst IT professionals," the RCSA report said. "There were acute shortages beforehand. Many have found work locally or in Australia. But it has significantly reduced contracting rates. The number of job postings is now the lowest since our counts started in mid 2018."
Woodward said it was "little wonder the data looks so dire" — citing a combination of interest rate rises, inflation and global uncertainty impacting business confidence in the job market.
RCSA member Richard Vaughan said the recent election result did not help to boost dampened business confidence in the private sector.
"Once business gets a better picture of how this Government is going to govern, along with its spending plans, I am sure we will see an increase in activity. We are very close with our clients, and we know there are lots of programmes of new work waiting to commence," he said.
RCSA would release its first quarterly Jobs Report for 2024 in the coming weeks.
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