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 held up well duing the GFC and are now starting to be impacted by strong demand and skills shortages especially for technical writers and instructional designers. During the year, the availability of candidates for positions was tight. Responses to advertisements were generally low and generally 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.

44% of documentation specialists earned between $95,000 and $135,000 package (ie salary including compulsory superannuation). 29% earned over $135,000. The 2010 annual salary report shows the significant increase in rates over 2009.

For full details download a PDF version of the 2008-2010 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 6 months at the start of 2009.

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, online help and training materials
• when hiring, employers place most emphasis on performance at an interview and consideration of past experience.
• The top 3 competencies are 'Collaboration with subject matter experts and coworkers', 'Write, edit and test documents' and 'Write clearly for specific audiences'

This year for the first time respondents were asked what they expected to pay per hour for various services. Generally the expectation was in the range $65 - $80 per hour with consulting and specialized knowledge valued a bit higher.

For more details view the Technical communication industry full report.