The number of jobs advertised for permanent IT
professionals working in the finance sector has risen by over 8%
over the past 12 months, as the City enjoys a mini-boom in IT
spending.
Demand for IT professionals with experience of compliance and
security has pushed the number of vacancies advertised in the
finance sector from 21,976 to 23,814 between the last quarters of
2004 and 2005.
Finance comes second only to the software and services industry
as the sector with the most IT vacancies, dramatically outstripping
retail, media, manufacturing and the public sector, the latest
Computer Weekly/SSL jobs survey reveals.
The impact of regulations, including Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel 2 and
MiFID, combined with bumper profits in the investment banks, has
led to rising recruitment in the sector. The upturn has helped
raise salaries for IT professionals with business experience in
senior jobs, at a time when other sectors are seeing salaries
stagnate or fall.
Advertised salaries for IT directors in the finance sector rose
by 3% over the 2005 period to an average of £90,625. Salaries for
management consultants in finance were up by 2.7%, from £66,475 to
£68,289, and systems analysts by 5% from £32,147 to £33,622.
The average salary for network managers rose by 9% from £53,044
to £57,878. However, advertised salaries for staff with more
technically focused skills have fallen, reflecting growing pressure
on salaries from offshore outsourcing.
Average salaries for programmers were down 8% from £30,012 to
£27,698 over the course of the year, while salaries for senior
programmers were down 2.2% from £41,166 to £40,250.
There has been a similar pattern for contractors. Advertised
hourly rates for high-end staff in finance rose, with management
consultants up 5.1% to £61 an hour and project managers up 3.7 to
£56 an hour. However, rates for programmers fell by 14% to £30 an
hour, rates for PC support technicians fell by 5.6%, and network
support engineers saw their rates fall by 10.6%.
Click here for across-the-board analysis of the Computer Weekly/SSL
survey
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