That's the finding of the IT Hiring Influence Report 2006 released by recruitment firm Diversiti, a division of Accenture Inc.
An estimated 78 percent of respondents identified global competition for skilled IT resources as the factor that will have the greatest impact on availability of IT labor in Australia over the next 12 months.
The survey also found 69 percent of respondents believe that retaining talent will be their biggest hiring challenge, closely followed by recruiting the right skill set (63 percent) and a shortage of skilled candidates (61 percent).
These preliminary findings were released today at the CompTIA panel discussion - "IT Skills Crisis: fact or fiction."
Full results will be launched in Sydney on Tuesday, June 6, 2006.
The Diversiti IT Hiring Influence Report is also endorsed by Queensland University of Technology.
Diversiti managing director Deborah Howard said the results dispel the myth that the skills crisis is fiction.
"There is absolutely no doubt that the key challenges facing employers over the next 12 months relate to the supply and retention of talent," she said.
"Despite these findings confirming that the hunt for IT talent is set to get harder, employers are confident that they will still be able to source most of their IT hires from within Australia."
Around 50 percent of respondents believe it will be harder to find relevant IT candidates with 47 percent citing "competition from other professions" as a problem.
A further 45 percent cited "continued decline in IT enrollments" among the other top five factors impacting the future of Australian IT labor supplies.
The survey, which had 365 respondents, targeted Australian employers who currently hire candidates across all IT functions.
This included CIOs, IT managers and HR managers ranging from small, medium and large businesses in all industry sectors.