Software and IT services are hiring the most graduates in Australia as the need for local tech talent continues to grow, according to social media company LinkedIn.

The IT industry beats out construction, corporate services, manufacturing, and health care when it comes to taking up graduates, which Country Manager of LinkedIn Australia and New Zealand, Matt Tindale, said is another sign of ongoing digital transformation.

“The shift that businesses have had to make towards adopting digital which has increased demand for investment in IT infrastructure, digital content, design and learning has been the main reason for this entry level hiring,” he said.

“The continued move to online in many areas of our lives, from meetings, studying and shopping have played roles in driving greater demand for graduate skilled professionals in the software and IT industries.”

LinkedIn’s insights come from measuring the number of entry level job postings from certain industry categorisations.

It also scans LinkedIn profiles for bachelor and associate degree completion dates to determine who is classified as a recent graduate.

ACS’ Australia’s Digital Pulse report 2021 also quantified the need for graduate employees, finding industry wants a further 60,000 tech workers every year but there are only around 7,000 IT local graduates coming out of study annually.

IT degrees are also becoming more popular with 41,000 domestic enrolments in 2019 as the future workforce begins adapting to demand.

But despite the industry hiring swathes of recent graduates, it’s not always a matter of grads walking into entry level positions.

Interviews for technology companies are some of the most difficult in the world, often involving hours-long technical tests on platforms like HackerRank alongside multi-staged interviews with management.

LinkedIn found IT graduates tend to take around three months before landing a job – a higher rate than other industries.

Tindale said LinkedIn noted a drop in the number of IT job postings from where it sat in the early stages of the pandemic.

“Our broader industry trends reveal that job posting [year-on-year] growth in software and IT services has declined six per cent in March-May 2021 as compared against March-May 2020,” Tindale said.

“This suggests that some of the transient demand in this sector last year is starting to return back to normal levels.”

Australian workers have been feeling the squeeze this past year as the combination of remote work and pandemic-related uncertainty has taken its toll.

A recent survey from Elmo Software found 42 per cent of workers have felt burnt out in the past three months, an increase on the 34 per cent who felt that in the previous quarter.

Greater feelings of burnout coincided with a decrease in job security, with just 47 per cent of respondents saying they felt secure in their job compared with 55 per cent who felt secure last quarter.