Australia – Rise in temporary tech jobs driven by AI and automation

By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

Nearly a quarter, or 23%, of Australian employers say they now employ temporary or contract staff on a regular ongoing basis, with automation and AI contributing to the rise, according to survey data from international recruiter Hays.

The research, based on a survey of more than 2,950 organisations representing 3,021,984 employees, also showed that 44% of Australian firms employ temporary and contract staff for special projects or workloads. In the next 12 months 23% expect to increase their use of temporary and contract staff. This exceeds the 9% who anticipate decreasing in this area.

This increase will be greatest in IT departments, where 37% of employers will increase their use of temporaries and contractors. The use of temporary and contract staff will also rise in 32% of Project Management and Purchasing/Procurement departments as well as 30% of Marketing departments, and 28% of Engineering departments.

“If we look at the skills in demand, it is professionals who can undertake non-routine work who are seeing the highest job growth,” Nick Deligiannis, Managing Director of Hays, said. “This is likely to continue, with automation and artificial intelligence already beginning to take over manual and repetitive tasks – just think of automated self-service checkouts in retail stores or assembly lines in manufacturing plants.”

“Robots and AI are expected to also be used as another tool to help us do our job better, but with automation taking over routine tasks it is knowledge workers who are more likely to be needed in future,” Deligiannis said.

“Highly-skilled temporary and contract staff are certainly becoming the ‘new normal’ in workplaces, creating a blended workforce of temporary and permanent employees who work side-by-side,” Deligiannis said. “By their very nature temporary and contract employees possess a high level of relevant knowledge. They are experts in their field and come into a workplace to add value immediately. It’s no wonder then that we’re seeing an increase in the use of temporary and contract staff.”

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