Hamilton may be becoming the IT capital of New Zealand, with a specialist IT recruitment company opening a new office in the city to meet increasing demand in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions. 

AbsoluteIT, which has offices in Auckland, Wellington and the United Kingdom, has opted to open the permanent facility after almost five years of recruiting in the region. 

Martin Barry, director and Northern regional manager for AbsoluteIT, says the decision to open a Hamilton branch follows 110% growth in the number of candidates in the region, and strong demand from local businesses.

"It’s one of the country’s fastest growing IT hubs,” Barry says, "yet has increasing skill shortages and very little in the way of dedicated IT recruitment services.

Martin Barry                           Brian Bernard 

                                                     

Specifically, demand is strong for project resources, business intelligence, Microsoft development, and infrastructure capability due to investment in data centres. 

"This is being driven by the need to offer cloud-based solutions and world-class disaster recovery sites to the New Zealand market,” Barry says.

Brian Bernard will relocate from the company’s Wellington office to run the new branch. 

"Currently most IT professionals are heading to Auckland and Wellington for work,” Bernard says, "but this region opens a new raft of opportunities and we’ll be marketing it to high quality professionals in New Zealand and internationally.”