The total number of IT jobs advertised fell by 76% last
year, but there are signs that the decline is levelling out and the
first signs of an upturn may be not too far away, according to the
quarterly Computer Weekly/SSP Survey of Appointments
If you are an IT director, have strong business skills or are
proficient in SAP, the jobs market has taken a significant turn for
the better over the past year. For the rest of you - bad luck. If
you were looking for a new job, 2002 was a year you will probably
want to forget. On the other hand, if you were one of the minority
recruiting staff, you could probably choose from several ideal
candidates.
Last year saw the biggest ever slump in the number of IT jobs
advertised in the UK, according to the latest edition of the
Computer Weekly/SSP Survey of Appointments Data and Trends, the
UK's biggest and most comprehensive study of the IT jobs
market.
The total number of UK IT jobs advertised in magazines and on the
internet fell by 76% between the fourth quarter of 2001 and the
fourth quarter of 2002. The decline continued in every quarter of
the year, dashing the hopes of some industry watchers who had
forecast an upturn in the jobs market towards the end of 2002.
Top five industry sectors advertising IT
jobs
| Industry | Q4 2001 | Q4 2002 | %
change |
| Software houses | 90,342 | 21,074 | -77% |
| Finance | 31,998 | 8,942 | -72% |
| Communications | 15,812 | 3,896 | -75% |
| Retail | 6,696 | 1,680 | -75% |
| Manufacturing | 5,787 | 1,590 | -73% |
It was felt across every industry sector, in every region in the
UK and, with one or two exceptions, across every type of job, from
senior managers down.
But the pattern of decline was not uniform. Some sectors fared
better than others, and there were a small number of job types for
which demand grew.
As is often the case, the people at the top of the IT ladder have
had a better time than those at the bottom. The advertised number
of management jobs fell by "only" 50% on average. These now account
for 5% of all advertised IT jobs, compared to 3% at the end of
2001.
Top five IT management jobs advertised
| Job title | Q4 2001 | Q4 2002 | %
change |
| IT/IS director | 190 | 227 | 19% |
| MIS/IT manager | 744 | 430 | -42% |
| Systems development
manager | 1,288 | 578 | -55% |
| Computer services manager | 763 | 326 | -57% |
| Office systems/PC manager | 389 | 128 | -67% |
Within this management group, demand held up best in the most
senior roles. Demand for MIS/IT managers fell by a relatively
modest 42% over the year while the number of jobs advertised for IT
directors actually increased by 19%, reaching 227 in the fourth
quarter.
"We are seeing more senior roles as a percentage of the total than
in the past," said Michael Bennett, a director of recruitment firm
Best International. However, he said this is partly because, while
recruiters are managing to fill many jobs without advertising, they
are more likely to advertise a senior vacancy. "The belief is you
always want to select from the best possible audience," he
said.
In non-management roles, jobs for PC support staff and
internet-related roles such as web master experienced the smallest
declines in vacancies.
Top five non-management jobs in IT
advertised
| Job title | Q4 2001 | Q4 2002 | %
change |
| Systems design | 36,226 | 10,150 | -72% |
| System development | 65,169 | 13,600 | -79% |
| Programming | 5,497 | 1,930 | -65% |
| PC support | 6,865 | 3,019 | -56% |
| Technical support | 31,202 | 7,054 | -77% |
Jobs involving databases, such as database administrator, and
system development jobs such as analyst programmers, saw the
biggest slump in demand, with the number of job ads falling by
about 80% in both cases.
This pattern of demand is reflected in the salaries being offered
in job ads. At the top end, the average advertised salary for IT
directors leapt by 14.5% between the fourth-quarter of 2001 and the
fourth-quarter of 2002, reaching £95,340. Average salaries offered
for most management jobs grew faster than the average increase for
all jobs.
Top five jobs - average salary
| Job title | Average advertised
salary | % change Q4 01-Q4
2002 |
| IT/IS director | £95,340 | 14.5 |
| MIS/IT manager | £55,145 | 5.6 |
| Systems development
manager | £51,093 | 6.2 |
| Computer services manager | £50,482 | 9.6 |
| Office systems/PC manager | £36,413 | 1.2 |
Bottom five jobs - average salary
| Job title | Average advertised
salary | % change Q4 01-Q4
2002 |
| Database administrator | 36,426 | -3 |
| Network/comms
analyst/engineer | 32,605 | 2.5 |
| Operator | 23,571 | 6.1 |
| Webmaster | 31,248 | 0.9 |
| Web designer | 26,325 | 0 |
Number of jobs advertised by platform
| Platform | Q4 2001 | Q4 2002 | %
change |
| Mainframe/mini | 18,021 | 3,417 | -81% |
| Unix | 38,413 | 9,366 | -76% |
| Windows | 139,391 | 27,350 | -80% |
The average salaries offered for some jobs declined over the
same period - for example, by 9.4% for development team leaders,
3.6% for analyst programmers and 3% for database administrators.
But overall, for most jobs the average advertised salaries were
higher at the end of 2002 than at the start (table 5).
However, employers are expecting a lot more for their money, say
those close to the market. "Whatever spec you want, you can insist
on getting it," said Cathy Walsh, managing partner at recruitment
firm the Triangle Partnership. "If people don't meet your entire
spec you don't consider them. If you have five criteria you can
demand all five now."
Paul Smith, a director of recruitment giant Harvey Nash, says
recruiters are holding out for people with a greater breadth of
skills, particularly at the top end. "Salaries are increasing, but
in return people are looking for real commercial and strategic
skills," he says. "We have seen a major change over the past three
years, away from people with technical capabilities towards people
able to advise the business on delivering real business
propositions and return on investment. Firms are looking for people
who know how to structure IT to deliver competitive edge, while
keeping costs to the minimum. This is a prime factor in recruiting
senior people."
E-Skills UK, a body representing employers of IT staff, is also
finding that firms are now more interested in the "softer" skills.
"Employers are getting pickier," says Terry Watts, E-Skills UK's
chief operating officer. "They are looking for more well-rounded
people. People get hung up on supplier-specific skills. But
employers say they want people they can put in front of customers
and who can work as part of their teams."
As always, even in an economic slowdown, there are some niche
skills for which demand is still growing. In the league table of
the 50 most sought-after software skills, six are experiencing real
growth in demand, with the number of jobs advertised higher at the
end of 2002 than at the end of 2001.
Fastest-growing software skills 2001-2002
| Skill | Growth | Skill | Growth |
| C# | 59% | CRM | 19% |
| SAP | 53% | .net | 14% |
| Wan | 32% | Lan | 3% |
Demand for people with customer relationship management skills
increased by 19% during 2002, while the number of jobs advertised
seeking SAP skills shot up by 53%.
"You have to take your hats off to the SAP guys," says Lorne
Knight, sales director at recruitment giant Computer Futures. "They
have a good product, and they have invested a significant amount on
marketing. SAP is in your face."
Knight says the demand for SAP skills is being boosted because
firms are increasingly looking to implement SAP using in-house
staff or contractors, rather than relying on expensive
consultancies.
Demand for networking skills has also increased. Over the past year
the number of job ads asking for wide area networking expertise
grew by 32%, and the number seeking local area networking skills
increased by 3%.
Looking at emerging skills, Microsoft will be pleased to note that
demand for people to work with its .net technology increased by 14%
during 2002, while the number of jobs ads seeking people who can
use Microsoft's C# programming language leapt by 59%, making this
the fastest-growing skill in the UK top 50, albeit from a very low
starting point.
Top five software skills
| Skill | Rank
(Q4/01) | Jobs
(Q4/01) | Rank
(Q4/02) | Jobs
(Q4/02) | %
change |
| SQL | 2 | 36,719 | 1 | 10,470 | -71% |
| C++ | 1 | 37,654 | 2 | 9,120 | -76% |
| Unix | 3 | 34,252 | 3 | 9,082 | -73% |
| Office | 8 | 18,619 | 4 | 7,901 | -58% |
| Windows NT | 9 | 18,256 | 5 | 7,778 | -57% |
Bottom five software skills
| Skill | Rank
(Q4/01) | Jobs
(Q4/01) | Rank
(Q4/02) | Jobs
(Q4/02) | %
change |
| Novell | 34 | 3,354 | 46 | 850 | -75% |
| Prince | 44 | 1,695 | 47 | 812 | -52% |
| Lotus products | 28 | 4,240 | 48 | 794 | -81% |
| Delphi | 25 | 4,512 | 49 | 793 | -82% |
| Lotus Notes | 26 | 4,313 | 50 | 784 | -82% |
But not all organisations are looking to plug skills gaps by taking
on new staff. An increasing number are retraining existing staff.
The Computer Weekly/Kew Associates biannual study of IT budgets
shows spending on IT training up 24% in 2002. "Employers,
especially the big ones, instead of worrying about technology or
hiring new people, are doing more about understanding the skills of
the existing workforce," says Watts.
The Computer Weekly/SSP research shows little geographical
variation in the jobs market. Central London saw the number of jobs
advertised decline marginally less than the average, driven by
public sector and other not-for-profit organisations rather than
London's traditional IT jobs engine, the City, says Walsh.
Across the whole country the public sector was the most promising
part of the jobs market, with demand down by a mere 44%.
So what can we expect this year? Despite the failure of an upturn
to materialise at the end of 2002, most recruitment firms are
cautiously optimistic about 2003.
"The technology market is beginning to gear up a bit," says Smith.
"The software houses and communications houses are starting to
invest in new sales people" - a strong sign the demand for
technical staff is set to rise, he says.
Smith disagrees with pundits who say the market will not pick up
this year because of a lack of a "killer application". "The killer
app to restimulate the jobs market is going to be the need to
deliver business returns on investment," he says.
Bennett says that even the moribund market for IT contractors is
showing some signs of life. "We have seen growth of 7% to 8% in our
contract business in the first month of this year, compared to
December," he says.
Whenever the upturn does come, Bennett expects demand to pick up
fast. "I was in this business in 1992," he says. "It turned around
very quickly then. We were overwhelmed."