The tech sector is expected to soon return to a tight labour market, which will quickly absorb a glut of people currently looking for work.
Tech sector recruitment firm Talent country manager Kara Smith said competition for current tech jobs on offer was intense and overwhelming employers and recruitment agencies.
She said Australia and New Zealand were both in the same boat when it came to the drop in tech sector job postings, but New Zealand was attracting twice as many applicants per job.
"Hiring managers (in New Zealand) are having to sit there and go through, could be 500 applicants to get it down to a short list. That is a number that our clients are throwing around quite often right now," Smith said.
She said the New Zealand market was in a unique and unsustainable situation at the moment, where both the public and private sector had shed tech staff and were yet to return to business as usual.
But she said employers needed to anticipate the shift back to business as usual and work on tactics to retain and recruit skilled staff.
"It will happen very quickly. Here we have been in the last 18 months in an incredibly unique situation whereby the public sector and the private sector have had recessed job opportunities at the same time."
She said Talent was advising employers to look at their employment offer and consider what changes were needed to keep highly skilled staff.
Smith said the competition for skilled people will come from within New Zealand and from other markets, which could offer more pay and opportunities.
The top average annual salaries paid for high demand tech specialists topped out at $185,000 this year, which was the same as in 2004, with cybersecurity specialists topping the list.
Despite relatively flat wage growth, Smith said salaries were still under pressure as candidates were seeking higher salaries in line with the increased cost of living.
In addition, she said tech workers were still departing New Zealand in search of better opportunities.
She said changes to visa requirements to allow more digital nomads to work from New Zealand was likely to be a positive for the tech sector.
"In the hyper connected world that we're in, I do think the digital nomad visa is actually a very good idea, because we need to find a way to advertise ourselves as a country to other people. So, yeah, I completely agree with it."
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