While the six month trend is up across the board, McVicker said the three weeks leading up to February 6, 2007, have been exceptional.

"There has been a ten per cent increase in that period alone against a nine per cent rise in the six months prior to that - this is the biggest jump ever witnessed," he said. On a state by state basis, labor demand for the past six months was strongest in Queensland and Western Australia.

In Queensland, demand jumped a whopping 28 percent with a 36 percent increase for permanent roles.

Demand was up 19 percent in Western Australia, with a 23 percent rise for permanent staff. Increases haven't been as great in other states but they were still significant. For example, Victoria had a 13 percent increase and NSW/ACT rose six percent. South Australia came in at five percent. Skills recording the biggest increases were in software testing roles up 25 percent, multimedia 24 percent, project management 20 percent, telecom specialists 15 percent, hardware engineers 13.5 percent, network engineers 10 percent, consulting 12 percent and BA roles 9.5 percent.