Marketing and Information Systems Trends in Australia

Australia is the world's smallest continent and the sixth-largest country in area. Australia is divided into six states (Gable 2006).The states are: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia (Gable 2006). Most of Australia's population of more than 20 million is concentrated in the eastern and south-eastern coastal areas with the majority living in the state and territory capital cities (Gable 2006). Australia has a western-style capitalist economy with one of the fastest-growing productivity rates in the OECD (Gable G.G 2006).

Australia adopted information systems (IS) in the early 1960’s. The federal government of Australia put together an initiative named (PIT) Programmer in Training to emerge the structure of IS in Australia. The emphasis of the initiative was on analysis and design (Clark 2006). Throughout the decades initiatives were put into place including CAEs (Colleges of Advanced Education), the Institutes of Technology, and other advancements to ensure growth of IS across Australia.

Australia had a slow start in the emergence of IS compared to the United States and other countries. Now, through the government initiatives Australia has created a healthy education system for students interested in pursuing a career. While IS has a substantive presence in a most Australian universities, in some it is yet perceived as “a mere service discipline” (Clarke 2006, p.134).

The country of Australia has a workforce of 11,573,000 with an unemployment rate of 5.9% (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014). A 1998 research paper coordinated by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts examined skill shortages in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industry amidst a worldwide surge in corporate activity. They concluded that “growth in demand for IT&T related skills is strong with the sector growing at 12 per cent per annum”. Growth was expected to be strong through 2005. The reality has been different. There was a major decline in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) labour market in 2001(Biddle, Burgess, Mitchell, and O'Brian). During recent years, the majority of hiring will be in the IT, healthcare and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sectors (Going Global 2011). The reason for this lack of IT talent is the fact that the number of IT graduates in Australia has dropped significantly over the last five years. The greatest demand is for skilled software developers and IT infrastructure candidates, as well as project managers and business analysts. The salaries for these positions are ranging anywhere from 60,000 AUD for a basic developer position to CIO positions ranging from 120,000 to 260,000 AUD. The salaries for IT positions continues to increase due to demand.

Moving towards a different industry, demand will increase for strategic marketing professionals as businesses seek to optimize customer