According to the latest Computer Weekly/SSP quarterly survey of job
advertisements, pay rates have plummeted unless you are a senior
SAP developer. Nicholas Enticknap reports
While firefighters went on strike for a 40% pay increase, IT staff
changing jobs can expect next to nothing. Salaries offered to
applicants for IT job positions have remained virtually static over
the past year. The average annual rise across all job positions
advertised in the third quarter was just 1.0%, according to the
Computer Weekly/SSP Survey of Appointments Data and Trends for July
to September. This is the lowest rise ever recorded.
A year ago advertised salaries had risen 2.9%, while at the peak of
the Year 2000 compliance boom four years ago the annual increase
reached 6.9%. The third quarter's 1% rise was well below the
headline rate of inflation for September of 1.7%.
The increase in salaries advertised is not the same as the rise IT
professionals in post actually get, but there has historically been
a close correlation between the two. There is certainly little
prospect of anybody materially improving their position by changing
job at present.
Of the 65 job titles tabulated by the SSP survey, 23 actually had
an advertised average salary less than at this time last year.
Comms managers and database administrators saw the salaries on
offer fall 1%; programming managers, business analysts, training
officers and Web designers were offered 2% less; and operations
managers and systems programmers suffered to the tune of 4%.
Salaries offered to trainee developers were down 6% and to comms
engineers down a massive 9% (from £32,000 to £29,000).
Harvey Nash group marketing director Paul Smith says that even at
the top end salaries have stabilised in 2002. "In London in
particular, the salaries have either stayed the same or gone down."
He has found that the average salary paid to London-based IT
directors has declined from £82,500 in 2001 to £77,000 in 2002.
The proportion of people satisfied with their salary has risen at
the same time, from 30% a year ago to 39% now, according to Harvey
Nash. "I would not have believed people were expecting lower
salaries, bonuses and share options," says Smith. "All the dynamics
are changing in the market."
Triangle Partnership managing director Cathy Walsh agrees, "Salary
is an incidental now. You don't see people moving to try to improve
the package. People will change for the same salary: they all move
for the opportunity."
Smith believes some types of staff are suffering less. "Project
managers and senior developers are still in demand, and there rates
have stabilised. I don't think it will go down any further at the
high end, though it will at the bottom end," he says.
The SSP figures support Smith's finding. Salaries offered to senior
developers were up 5% and to other developers 2%. Systems analysis
salaries rose 3% for senior staff and 2% for others.
The low level of salary increase generally is a reflection of the
severely depressed state of the overall market. The total jobs on
offer on the Web were down by two-thirds on a year ago; the jobs
advertised in magazines were down by over 70%. The totals of jobs
advertised in both places are the lowest ever recorded.
So demand at present is minimal - in general. But there still are
opportunities for those with the right skills.
One skill currently commanding good money is SAP enterprise
resource management. There was double the demand for professionals
with expertise in SAP of a year ago, lifting this skill to 12th
place in the league table. This upsurge is reflected in the
salaries offered to mainstream development staff.
Systems developers with SAP skills are being offered 12% more than
a year ago, from £38,000 to over £42,500. Senior developers did
better still, with a rise of 17% from £47,500 to well over £55,000.
That compares with the average salary rises for all developers of
2% and 5% respectively.
For other types of professional the inducement to acquire SAP
skills is even more compelling. Analyst/ programmers with SAP
expertise are 38% better off than a year ago, with the salaries
offered up from £24,000 to nearly £33,000. SAP programmers have
done nearly as well, with wages rising 33% from £22,000 to £29,000.
For systems consultants, the picture is different. Here the
salaries offered to SAP specialists has fallen by 9%, from £78,700
to £70,400. That is exactly the same as the average salary decline
for all consultants.
The reason for this is that the boom in SAP consultancy which was a
feature of the Year 2000 compliance period is now over. IT sites
are not looking for radical change involving expensive outside
assistance; they are looking to consolidate the changes made during
that period.
"It's all about making do and mending. People are not buying new
software or new platforms. They are integrating, modifying and
improving applications," Smith says.
One area where there is evidence of forward movement is in new wave
Microsoft-based development. Interest in .net expertise is almost
double a year ago, and this skill has jumped 68 places in the
quarterly league table to 25th. The programming language, C#, has
moved up 87 places over the year and is now 47th.
Microsoft's ASP Web server scripting technology is also looking
good. Demand was down, but only by 29%, much less than the average,
and as a result it has risen 11 places in the table to 15th.
All of this is in stark contrast to familiar Web-based skills such
as Java, which we can now regard as legacy. Demand for Java fell by
more than the market average, some 70%, though it has only moved
down one place in the table. HTML is down 73% and Javascript down
72%.
Internet-based comms skills are falling from favour even faster.
Demand for TCP/IP expertise fell 84%, and for Cisco 79%, and both
skills are plummeting down the league table. This is partly because
the comms industry sector has been hit even worse than the IT
sector overall. Comms companies cut recruitment by more than any
other sector last quarter.
The public sector, the one bright star for IT professionals of the
past two years, had a quiet third quarter with a 38% fall in jobs
advertised on the Web. Government advertising in the magazines was
down by a little less, just over a third.
This sector is still a frenetic hive of activity compared to most
of the others. Walsh says these organisations are actively looking
to recruit from the business world. "There is a positive move to
say we'd like people who could bring some depth into our
organisation," she says.
Otherwise, it was the manufacturing companies which showed up best.
Electronics companies and non-IT manufacturing and engineering
firms all cut their IT recruitment by less than 40%. This was the
sixth quarter in succession that electronics companies have done
better than the market average, and they now account for 3% of all
IT jobs advertised, up from 1% in April 2001.
Demand for Unix fell by nearly three-quarters from a year ago, but
it remains the most popular operating system, just ahead of Windows
NT. Windows 2000 has entered the top 20 for the first time. Windows
XP does not feature in the top 150 skills.
Fall in the number of job ads by industry sector on the Web in
the third quarter of 2002
Engineering: -35%
Manufacturing: -37%
Public sector: -38%
Electronics companies: -39%
Utilities/energy: -60%
Banking/finance: -66%
Distribution/retail: -67%
Software houses: -68%
Media/publishing: -70%
Comms companies: -73%
All jobs: -67%
Fall in the number of job ads by region
West &
Wales: -56%
Scotland & Northern Ireland: -58%
Inner London: -65%
North East: -67%
Southern England: -67%
East Midlands: -71%
North West: -71%
Outer London: -72%
West Midlands: -76%
All jobs -67%
This article is based on information contained in the Computer
Weekly/SSP Quarterly Survey of Appointments Data and Trends. The
survey analyses advertisements for computer professionals on the
Web and in the trade press and the quality national dailies and
Sundays. It is primarily intended for recruitment agencies and IT
managers with a substantial recruitment requirement.
The posts advertised are broken down in the survey into 65 job
categories. Within each job category, the survey provides details
of the number of posts advertised and the average and median
national salaries offered for the last quarter and for each of the
previous four.
The survey provides further analyses within each job category by
platform type, industry sector and regional location. It also
provides a breakdown for the major job categories of the technical
skills most in demand. In each analysis, it again details the
average salary on offer for each of the past five quarters.
The price of a single issue of the survey is £250, and for an
annual subscription is £350. This covers four issues, and includes
a free copy of a Windows-based software product which allows
selection of combinations of region, industry and software skills
for a specified job type. For further information contact
Bernardine Caine on 01488-72705, or at bernardine.caine@rbi.co.uk.