Pay for UK IT contractors working in financial services has
started to rise after a four-year decline.
The Association of Technology Staffing Companies (Atsco) surveyed
more than 20,000 UK IT professionals and found that IT contractors
in financial services saw their pay increase 2% in the last six
months of 2003.
IT workers in technology companies, such as electronics, aerospace
and the software industry, made greater gains and enjoyed average
pay rises of between 6% and 9%.
The financial services industry is one of the biggest spenders on
IT in the economy and contractor pay rates can serve as a barometer
for the IT jobs market.
"Financial services pay rates have lagged behind the upturn in
other sectors, particularly government," said Ann Swain, Atsco's
chief executive. "It now seems as if we are seeing the first
glimmer of recovery in the sector that fell the furthest in the
stock market crash.
"City institutions scaled IT departments down to minimal
operational requirements during the downturn, so any upturn is
going to feed through to job creation fairly quickly."
Forthcoming regulations with IT implications, such as Basel 2 and
Sarbanes-Oxley, have also fuelled IT activity, Swain added.