The ICT Jobseekers Survey, conducted last month, polled 260 respondents and found that 79 percent were considering changing jobs within the next 12 months, and 67 percent were looking at opportunities overseas. Of those, a quarter said they were prepared to go within the next three months.
Of all destinations, Australia was the most popular, with 56 percent of respondents who said they'd go offshore indicating it as their first choice.
The UK drew a 14 percent response as a first choice, with continental Europe also eliciting that number, and Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong also got mentions.
The commentary by GlobalCareerLink on the survey notes: "The overwhelming factor for wanting to make a job change is the search for new opportunities and challenges.
"The implication for managers is that they have to keep their workplace dynamic and interesting by constantly challenging their staff, and that the top brass of companies need to keep senior IT people interested as well.
"Contrary to popular rants on blog sites, the quality of management is not an issue and most people surveyed feel that they have a good relationship with their manager.
"Therefore, implementing a challenging work environment should not be an issue."
While "lifestyle" is much-vaunted as a compensation that local employers can offer to counteract higher salaries overseas, the commentary notes: "We would be naive to believe that we can retain talent on the whims of lifestyle."
While there was "consistency about the desire to move overseas across all age groups as well as all income brackets", the desire to shift wasn't as pronounced among non-New Zealand nationals living here who took part in the survey.
Of the survey participants, 89 percent had more than five years' ICT experience, 71 percent were aged 35 or over, 75 percent were tertiary-qualified, while 58 percent of those surveyed earned $100,000 or more per annum.