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AIMIA Digital Industry Salary Survey Reveals Demand for Skilled Digital Professionals

Announcement posted by ADMA 02 Mar 2016

Skills shortage driving reliance on overseas talent and high mobility

Sydney, Australia: 2 March 2016. AIMIA has today released the results of its 2015 Digital Industry Salary Survey which reveals the continued skills gap within the digital industry is creating a highly mobile workforce as employers seek ‘ready made’ skilled digital professionals.

The comprehensive and independent survey, sponsored by S2M, is designed to provide digital agencies with insight into employment trends to assist in resourcing effectively.

Key finding of the survey are:

457 visas represented 10% of the digital industry workforce, 10 times the average for other industries with the national average at 1%

Highly mobile market where employees can easily job hop to more responsibility and pay very easily due to talent shortage

Digital professionals in Melbourne and Sydney and are much more likely to change employers with 87% and 83% of the respective digital community open to changing employers (compared to 65% in other areas of Australia)

70% of digital industry is centred on people 26-40 with just 8% under 25 and 8% over 46 indicating a preference for ‘ready made’ skilled workers

Median salaries are 10% higher in Sydney than in Melbourne and other location

Median salaries are 15% lower for females (versus national average of 17.62%[i] )

Females currently represent 42% of the workforce for digital professions, compared to 50%[ii] for other industries. This suggests that women have room to increase their presence in roles across the digital industry

Jodie Sangster, CEO of AIMIA and ADMA commented “We know that there is a significant skills gap within many areas of the digital, media and marketing landscape and the high proportion of 457 visa holders within the digital industry reflects the demand for ‘ready made’ skilled executives. There is significant opportunity for both employers and employees alike to develop and nurture local talent in order to continue to drive innovation within the Australian digital industry and foster the next generation of digital executives.”

Digital agencies only account for 23% of digital professionals employed, with 29% in digital media, 14% within IT/vendors and a significant 32% in corporations or businesses. This demonstrates a growing trend as more and more businesses undergo digital transformation.

Jodie Sangster continued, “As we move to a post digital transformation world, AIMIA expects to see the continued shift of digital professionals across all sectors of private and public sectors as digital skills will become entrenched in many aspects of business. It is a pivotal time for the digital industry and we look forward to working with our members to further encourage professional excellence.”

About AIMIA

AIMIA is the digital industry association for Australia, representing the digital content, services and applications industry since 1992. Representing more than 400 digital businesses across Australia, AIMIA exists to encourage and support the growth of AIMIA members and the digital industry through education and training, and industry representation.

Notes to Editors

In February 2016 The Association for Data Driven Marketing and Advertising (www.adma.com.au) acquired AIMI, which was voluntarily wound up by its members in January 2016, in order to support the digital industry in Australia and provide continuity of services and initiatives to AIMIA’s members.