The finance sector is experiencing a boom in IT
recruitment despite steady performance in the rest of the
economy.
The number of jobs advertised in the finance sector rose by more
than 9% from the first to the second quarter of the year, according
to research for the Computer Weekly/SSL Survey of Appointments Data
and Trends.
The growth comes on top of a 22% rise in the number of job
vacancies between the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter
of 2006.
Most of the jobs on offer are in London, reflecting the
capital's position as a global finance centre.
"Finance is part of the global economy. London is now very much
in an economy of its own. It is the one area where the UK still has
global strengths in software and services," said Philip Virgo,
strategic adviser to the Institute for the Management of
Information Systems.
Despite the rapid growth in offshore outsourcing, most financial
organisations prefer to carry out development work in-house,
fuelling a boom in demand for development skills.
Programmers, senior programmers and developers in the finance
sector are commanding premium salaries as companies compete to
recruit the most talented people for upgrade projects, said SSL
director George Molyneaux.
"For development roles, finance is to the fore. Every job grade
in development shows the finance sector as being the most highly
paid," he said.
Those with SQL, C, Java, C# and C++ can command the highest
salaries, the survey found, with developer posts in central London
advertising average salaries of £48,000.
"Financial services is an area where you are specifying systems
and delivering them to short timescales and you have to be in
London. You have to be close to the customer. This is not mundane
back-office stuff. By the time you have specified it for an
offshore outsourcing supplier, it is too late," said Virgo.
However, financial firms are turning to outsourcing for IT
support services, driving down demand for IT support staff,
including PC helpdesk and support staff. They have seen salary
levels fail to keep up with inflation, or in many cases fall, over
the past 12 months.
"Nearly all insurance companies have been outsourcing, and banks
have been outsourcing like crazy over the past two years," said
Molyneaux.
Financial firms are looking to recruit IT staff globally,
advertising jobs in New York and Hong Kong as well as London, said
Virgo. "If you are in London, financial services is where it's at,"
he said.
IT industry average salaries Q1 2006
Job Salary Q1 2006 Salary Q1 2005 % Change
IT director 88,750 89,166 -0.47%
IT manager 62,649 58,218 +7.61%
Helpdesk manager 39,050 43,160 -9.52%
Network manager 54,795 47,400 +15.60%
Systems consultant 70,074 66,490 +5.39%
Project manager 54,398 54,995 -1.09%
Senior systems analyst 52,574 46,543 +12.96%
Test analyst 32,096 31,555 +1.71%
Systems developer 47,065 47,262 -0.42%
Analyst programmer 34,169 34,633 -1.34%
Programmer 29,550 27,898 +5.92%
PC support 22,841 23,410 -2.43%
Systems administrator 39,475 39,591 -0.29%
Data administrator 42,011 41,496 +1.24%
Operator 24,083 24,300 -0.89%
Source: Computer Weekly/SSL Survey of Appointments Data and
Trends
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