In a jobs market annihilated by COVID-19, tech roles are one of the few shining stars.

Employment platform Seek found new job postings in Australia down 65.3% compared to the same time last year.

Tech jobs, however, have fared better than most.

“The impacts of COVID-19 on the labour market have been swift and extreme,” said Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ.

“Unsurprisingly and unfortunately, there is a mass reduction in the number of jobs available at a national level, whilst simultaneously there is an urgent demand for workers in specific industries.”

While industries such as sports and recreation have seen their job ads down 97.7%, and advertising, arts and the media down 86.5%, job ads in information and communication technology have fallen a relatively low 55.2%.

With a large chunk of the Australian workforce now working from home, tech workers enabling the digitisation of the workforce are crucial.

“As businesses adjust to remote working practices, they are investing in cyber security, and making sure their staff have good digital connectivity,” Banks said, adding that software development and cyber security roles are in demand.

“Investment in these areas is likely to continue as social isolation measures continue to be imposed throughout the coronavirus pandemic,” Banks noted.

Show me the jobs

Despite call centre and customer service staff job ads being down 75.3%, Telstra had no problem recently scoring 19,000 applications for 1,000 temporary call centre positions.

“Over the last few weeks, more candidates have been applying for jobs across a wide range of roles and industries,” Banks said.

“The good news is that employment activity hasn’t ground to a halt – there are still some companies out there who need workers, and in some cases, they need them right now.”

The following number of technology jobs are available on Seek.com.au today:

· Architects: 554

· Business & Systems Analysts: 804

· Developers & Programmers: 1648

· Software Engineers: 907

· Help desk & IT support: 623

· Network & System administrators: 529

· Programmers: 625

Seek also found 53 per cent of employees feel secure in their current job (down from 66 per cent since January) and 54 per cent feel confident about future job prospects (down from 62 per cent).