Growing IT spending by public sector organisations has
created many additional jobs and is pushing salary rates up to the
levels seen in the private sector, recruitment consultants have
said.
Public sector IT spending is set to rise by 16% this year, and
high-profile projects such as the £2.3bn national programme for IT
in the NHS is underpinning government attempts to reform public
services. Meanwhile, local authorities are racing to meet the 2005
deadline for making their services available online.
The latest Computer Weekly IT Expenditure Report predicted that IT
spending overall will increase by 8.4% this year, but that spending
growth in the public sector will be double this.
As a result, the traditionally lower wages in the public sector are
starting to catch up with those in the private sector, said Sean
Wadsworth, managing director of recruitment consultancy Real IT
Resourcing.
"A programmer in the public sector can now attract wages of between
£25,000 and £30,000, which is the same as in the private sector,"
he said.
Wadsworth added that there has been a "massive" upturn in permanent
and contract jobs in the health, central and local government
sectors.
In response to the upsurge in IT investment, local authority IT
managers' association Socitm has launched a personal development
strategy for its members to help them cope with increased demand
for their skills.
IT professionals considering a move from the private to the public
sector can look forward to the prospect of working on a wider
variety of projects. Other benefits include job security and good
pension schemes.
Simon Mingay, research director at analyst firm Gartner, said this
meant that IT professionals who would never have considered the
public sector before are now keen to get into it - particularly
those made redundant in the private sector.
But new recruits should still be prepared to experience remnants of
the public sector's culture of red tape, he added.
"There may still be a culture shock for some but the public sector
is now far less than some sort of black art that no-one really
knows about until they take a job in it. With the huge media
coverage of the major IT projects, those interested will find it
easier to make their own decisions rather than rely on
stereotypes."
"People who work in the public sector have a certain motivation -
they want to 'make a difference' or perhaps they like working on a
diverse range of projects," said Steve Ripley, head of IT at Bexley
Council. "At Bexley, we effectively have 70 different businesses,
which is obviously unlike most private sector organisations."
Ripley agreed that IT salaries in the public sector - traditionally
about 20% lower than the private sector - were starting to catch
up.
"The boundaries are definitely starting to disappear, but what we
have seen over the past couple of years is a temporary blip - once
the private sector starts to recover it will probably be ahead
again in terms of wages," said Ripley.
But despite this, said Ripley, the advantage of working in the
private sector would not be as distinct as in the past, because
many councils have outsourced their IT and many of those people
formerly working for the public sector had since transferred to
private sector companies.
"We have been outsourcing for 10 years and neighbouring councils
such as Greenwich and Bromley are doing the same thing, so that
illustrates how boundaries are slowly disappearing," said Ripley.