Software developers have fallen out of Seek’s top ten most needed workers after occupying the fourth spot earlier this year.

The latest figures from the job search site maintains nursing as the most in-demand job, unsurprisingly, followed by warehouse workers, aged and disability carers, and mechanics.

Way down in 11th place on the list of Australia’s most needed workers sit developers and programmers – a seven-place drop since February.

Liam Kelly from tech recruitment firm Halcyon Knights told Information Age the Seek data was consistent with his experience from earlier this year, and that it was far from a damning result.

“The need for software engineers definitely quietened at the height of COVID; it was not nearly as prolific as it once was,” he said.

“Businesses had been in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting to see what was coming next.

“But then, at the start of this financial year, that really picked up again and we’ve started to have a resurgence in the need for software engineers of all kinds.”

The pandemic caused a dramatic shift in Australia's priorities. Source: Seek

ANZ Bank’s latest job ad figures tell a similar story with nationwide demand for employees dropping to well below half pre-COVID levels in April and May.

As job ads for some industries, such as travel and media, were virtually destroyed, IT ads dropped by 55 per cent.

Through July, the situation for jobseekers began to improve with more job ads and employers actively recruiting for IT roles.

And as the threat of a recession loomed, tech workers were more confident than most in the ability for their skillset to see them through difficult economic times.

Remarkably, enforced work-from-home policies have also uncovered an increase in productivity.

“The majority of businesses I have spoken to – especially [software-as-a-service] focused ones – have found their software engineers to be more productive working remotely,” Kelly said.

“There’s less distraction, less of a commute, and fewer meetings so they can really get stuck into the code they’re working on.”

Recent research from Adaptavist found that over 85 per cent of Australians who were working from home reported being equally or more productive than they were at the office.