TheAustralians are coming and they're after your body.

ICTskills are in such demand that ?in Canberra, you can't even hirebad people,? says IBRS analyst Kevin McIsaac.

?Because the Australian skills shortages are worse, it will lookto New Zealand for those skills,? McIsaac says.

The shortage of ICT skills in New Zealandhas been well documented but the situation is much worse inAustralia.

?Strong economic growth has meant more transactions, documentsand emails and, therefore, much more to manage,? McIsaac says. ?Thebad news is that the economy won't slow for four to five years.Rather, according to the OECD, the world may be facing geographicalrebalancing.?

McIsaac notes that in 2004, 12% of the New Zealand population wasaged over 65; in 2051, that will grow to 25%. But in Australia, thesituation is projected to be much worse.

?Therefore, greater automation, better information and moreeffective collaboration in IT is required.?

Currently in Australia, demand for IT workers is up 61% on lastyear, he says.

In February, IT job advertisements were up 8.7% compared with thenational average for all jobs of 4.93%.

?There is a war for IT graduates in Australia. There is apredicted skills gap of 27,500 graduates over the next five years.?

One of the drivers of IT skills demand is the dramatic growth inunstructured data, which now comprised as much as 85% of all businessdata. ?White collar workers are spending 30% to 40% of their timemanaging documents,? he says.

-Randal Jackson, Computerworld.co.nz -