Figures for the third quarter prove that the recession in ITis
definitely over and IT professionals looking for their next job can
expect a pay rise above inflation. Nicholas Enticknap reports on
the latest SSL/ Computer Weekly salary survey
Jobs available for IT professionals surged upwards in the third
quarter of 2004. The number of jobs advertised on the web nearly
doubled compared to a year ago. It was also up a third on the total
shown in the second quarter, which is remarkable as the third
quarter contains the summer holiday period, and so advertising,
along with other business activity, usually declines
markedly.
The position in the contract market was even more encouraging, as
the number of job ads more than doubled relative to a year ago, and
was up by a half on the second quarter.
Furthermore, in both permanent and contract jobs the salaries on
offer were significantly higher than a year ago. In the permanent
market the median rise was 4.3%, which is only the second time in
the past three years that it has been above the headline rate of
inflation, and is the highest since the peak of the Y2K boom in
early 1999. In the contract market the rise was even greater, at
6.7%.
There is now no doubt that the prolonged post-Y2K recession in the
IT market is finally over. Jobs are available in plenty again, and
the balance of power is swinging from employer to applicant. The IT
market has now had three consecutive quarters of growth, and the
level of growth has increased each time.
These are findings from the latest issue of the SSL/Computer Weekly
Survey of Appointments Data and Trends. Industry opinion confirms
the upbeat message emerging from the survey.
"All the job boards are seeing pick-ups in traffic and pick-ups in
jobs," says Keith Robinson, operations director at online jobs
board Totaljobs. "There are plenty of quality jobs available," says
Paul Smith, group marketing director at recruitment consultancy
Harvey Nash.
Another positive sign is that some of the big IT companies are
recruiting again, including IBM, Oracle and SAP. According to
Robinson, "A lot of US corporates that weren't taking people on are
now back recruiting."
This is not only a big stimulus to the market in itself - we are
talking about thousands of new jobs worldwide - but historically it
has tended to kick smaller IT companies into life.
But whereas the overall picture is rosier than it has been for five
years, two cautionary notes need to be made. The first is that,
although the growth is very welcome, it is coming from a very low
level. The number of jobs advertised on the web in the last quarter
is the highest for more than two years, but it is still only a
third of a level of three years ago, and the land of plenty of
1998-1999 remains but a distant memory.
Growth from here is likely to be steady, rather than spectacular.
Robinson says, "We'll get a more manageable climb up the ladder
this time."
Smith agrees, "Year on year growth will slow down to a steady 5% to
10%".
The second reservation is that the growth is not uniform: demand is
much stronger for some types of job than it is for others. Smith
says, "There is still gloom at the lower end: there are not too
many support-type jobs and low-end developer jobs, not enough to
soak up the demand."
The figures in the SSL/Computer Weekly survey provide evidence to
underline Smith's finding. Demand for junior developers doubled,
but demand for senior staff more than trebled. Furthermore, the
salaries offered to junior developers rose by less than the
average, whereas those for senior staff did so by more than the
average.
So where is the demand? "There are a large amount of corporate
infrastructure jobs, such as for security, and there is a lot of
demand for outsourcing. Most of the demand is for high calibre
people: it is difficult to fill these posts," says Smith.
Geographically, the biggest growth in permanent jobs in the third
quarter was in outer London, where the jobs on offer grew by
two-and-a-half times compared to a year ago. This region is now the
biggest employer, taking over from southern England where growth
this time was slightly lower than the national average.
All areas of the UK saw substantial growth, though. The smallest
rise was in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but even here the number
of jobs on offer was up by two-thirds on a year ago.
Split by industry sector, the biggest growth was in the finance
sector, which did marginally better than the software houses. Both
sectors advertised more than double the number of jobs of a year
ago. In contrast, manufacturing remains a very depressed area, with
jobs ads up just 9% on a year ago.
In the contract market, the pattern is very similar. Outer London
and the finance sectors were again the biggest growth areas, with
increases even larger than in the permanent market. Scottish and
Irish IT professionals have more encouraging news here: the number
of contracts offered to them were up two-and-a-half times on a year
ago. Even manufacturing specialists can see a glimmer of light,
with jobs up by nearly a half compared to this quarter last
year.
Overall, the contract market is in very good shape. "There are more
projects on than there have been for many years - new projects,
developments and migrations, where CIOs are beginning to meet the
demands of businesses," says Smith.
In the skills market, SQL has resumed its position at number one in
the league table after a surprise fall to number four in the second
quarter.
There are encouraging signs for IT professionals with comms skills,
who have been enduring a gloomy time since the collapse of the
dot-com boom. Demand for network specialists rose 91% over the
three months, virtually the same as the overall average after
several years when it has been substantially below average. Of only
two top 25 skills which featured in more than double the number of
ads this time, one is TCP/IP, and it has shot up the table as a
result from 21st to 13th.
It is good news also that Cisco has begun recruiting again in the
US. "People with good Cisco skills who have managed to keep them up
to date are going to be the first to be snapped up," says
Smith.
The other fast riser in the top 25 is Microsoft's C# programming
language, which is now up to 15th. As organisations start investing
again in IT infrastructure, new wave Microsoft skills continue to
climb up the league table, and .net makes its debut in the top 10
this time. Java is also sustaining its recent recovery, and has
held on to the second place in the table it reached last time (it
was sixth a year ago).
Some more established skills are falling in demand as a result.
They include Oracle, which has tumbled from number three down to
number seven, and Solaris and Access, which have both fallen six
places this time. Solaris is suffering from the steady increase in
popularity of Linux, as indeed is Unix, which has surprisingly
fallen from first in Q3 2003 to fourth this time.
Job ads quantified to produce a comprehensive analysis
of the IT market
This article is based on information contained in the
SSL/Computer Weekly Quarterly Survey of Appointments Data and
Trends.
The survey analyses advertisements for IT professionals on the
web and in the trade press and the quality national dailies and
Sundays. It is primarily intended for recruitment agencies and CIOs
with a substantial recruitment requirement.
The posts advertised are broken down in the survey into 55 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 analysis 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 on CD which allows
selection of combinations of region, industry and software skills
for a specified job type.
Readers can order it
at www.salaryservices.co.uk
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