Hiring Technology Graduates and Interns in Aotearoa in 2021
Events of 2020 have rocked the world, and our small part of it is no exception! Closed borders, remote work, and ... so far... Aotearoa's continued good luck and good management which has meant our technology sector is hungry for talent.We've seen reports like this one that Australian employers are luring graduates with promises of $200K+ salaries. Good news for some lucky graduates, but we are not seeing this level of remuneration in Aotearoa... yet!We are, however, seeing a surge in interest from organisations keen to hire interns and graduates. Borders are closed and the global pandemic has been a catalyst for many to kick start their recruitment of juniors. We currently have 300% of last year's internship roles listed (for this time of year), and more employers than ever before seeking graduates for roles starting immediately.Salaries we're seeing are nowhere near the $200K mark, but with data for 95 summer internship roles (starting mid November 2021), and 63 graduate roles (starting sometime in 2021), we thought we'd share some benchmarking information to let NZ graduate and intern employers know what we see in terms of remuneration trends for technology graduates and interns:
SoTJobs: Graduate technology roles
(2021 n = 63, 2020 n = 11)
2021 mean wage: $38.55/hour :: 2020 mean wage: $24.41/hour
2021 median wage: $42.65/hour :: 2020 median wage: $25/hour
So far in 2021 we are seeing an increase of more than $14/hour on the average wage for a technology graduate role, and if you look at the medians, it's up $17.65/hour, or $36,000 per year compared to what we saw in 2020.
SoTInterns: Summer Internships
(updated 1 Sept 2021 n = 237, 2020 n = 345)
2021 mean wage: $24.82/hour :: 2020 mean wage: $24.45/hour
2021 median wage: $24.50/hour :: 2020 median wage: $22.50/hour
Our recommended minimum is the NZ Living Wage for interns and part-time student jobs. You can find more detail about our 2020 programme here, but we expect 2021 to be a very different year!
