Experienced technology workers are being offered salaries that are tens of thousands of dollars lower than inflated pay packets granted during the pandemic, as power in the hiring market swings back in favour of companies.
As such, specialist recruiters found salaries and contractor pay had fallen up to 15 per cent for some roles, while Seek data showed IT job ads were down 35 per cent compared to last year. Ravi Rughani, associate director of APAC for specialist IT recruiter Anson McCade, said the market was “absolutely crazy” during the pandemic, which led to business analysts earning an extra $300 a day as contractors or an additional $60,000 a year for full-time front end developers.
Based on anecdotal experience and their own data, recruiters said tech salaries were correcting after a hiring frenzy in 2021 and 2022, when companies overpaid for technology staff. This inflated salaries by 20 per cent to 30 per cent from their pre-pandemic levels.