Industry Surveys

As a recruiter and employer of documentation specialists, we are ideally placed to review market rates and comment on emerging trends. One of the tools we use to make these commentaries are surveys.

The main surveys we conduct are the:

• TechWriter Salary Reports
• Technical Writing Industry Survey
  Conducted in conjunction with the Australian Society of Technical Communication NSW and VIC
• Editing Industry Survey - currently collecting data. Click to enter your responses

For the latest updates please contact us at info@techwriter.com.au or phone (02) 9955 5768.

Salaries and vacancy levels in the technical communication industry have been impacted by strong demand and skills shortages especially for technical writers and instructional designers. During the year, the availability of candidates for positions was very tight and most contractors reported having the choice of several roles each time they were in the market. Responses to advertisements were generally low and often from overseas applicants seeking to work in Australia. At this stage there are no indications that this situation is likely to change in the short term.

48% of documentation specialists earned between $80,000 and $100,000 package (ie salary including compulsory superannuation). 30% earned between $90,000 and $100,000. The 2007 annual salary report shows the significant increase in rates over 2006.

For full details download a PDF version of the 2007 annual survey report (PDF 104k). If you would like a copy emailed to you, then please let us know by emailing info@techwriter.com.au

This report summarises the results of an online survey conducted over 3 months at the start of 2008.

The survey asked employers for information about technical communication in their organisations and what they were looking for when hiring technical communicators.

Key findings of the report include:

• the majority of respondents use Word as their authoring tool
• the main documents produced are user manuals and training materials
• when hiring, employers place most emphasis on performance at an interview and consideration of past experience.
• however, the ranking of items related to technology has declined while the criticality of the the top 3 items (writing for specific audiences, collaboration with colleagues and write, edit and test documents) has increased significantly.

For more details view the Technical communication industry full report.