Research presented at Parliament House by the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, and the Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O'Connor, shows that Australia's tracking well towards the nation's goal of creating 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030.
The research is done by IT industry organisation the Tech Council, which has 160 members.
It shows that by now, the tech sector is the major employer in all states and territories, being Australia's seventh largest employer.
As of February this year, Australia's current tech workforce stands at 935,000, which is 78 per cent of the 2030 1.2 million target that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese committed to last year.
Some 10,500 jobs were added in the last three months to March this year, with most of the growth in the indirect tech sector.
This, the Tech Council says, comprises tech-intensive jobs within industries such as retail, banking, professional services and mining.
Due to ongoing outflows from retirement and career transitions, the Tech Council said in its May 2023 update [pdf] that to reach the 1.2 million target, a further 600,000 people would need to join the sector.
Of these, 160,000 need to arrive from entry level pathways such as universities, and almost 300,000 people will need to come from retraining programs.
Tech Council expects 150,000 people joining the tech sector will be skilled migrants who fill gaps, especially in roles that require years of experience.
The industry association suggested five action points, including raising awareness of job opportunities in tech, fixing gaps in education and training, improving workforce diversity, targetting skilled migration and improving labour supply and demand forecasts.
Sought after tech sector workers can expect to be well remunerated with salaries remaining high at $132,000 on average per annum.
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