IT skills demand rises as salaries follow 16-month trajectory

KPMG study shows demand for IT talent rising, as IT professionals with SQL, PHP, CSS and HTML skills see spike in earnings

Permanent IT job placements rose for the fourth consecutive month in January 2013.

According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs, January 2013 saw an increase in permanent roles placed for the fourth month running. 

The number of temporary jobs increased for the six month in succession.

Job vacancies saw a sharp increase, with permanent job openings rising for the last 21 months. However temporary openings slowed in pace in January 2013 compared to December 2012.

The engineering/construction and IT and computing sector proved the most demanding jobs markets in January 2013.

According to the KPMG report, salaries have been on the rise for the last 16 months. The report suggests that contributing to the rise in salaries was a deterioration in the availability of permanent staff.

Despite the spike in permanent job salaries, temp pay fell slightly for the first time in five months in January 2013.

North England saw the biggest increase in permanent positions, followed by the Midlands. London and south England recorded modest increases.

Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, said the hiring figures for January should give employers and employees plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

“Demand for staff is at its highest peak for almost two years meaning that employees, who may have been too nervous to change jobs in recent months, might consider the benefits of a fresh challenge,” Brown said.

“Staff may also have more room for manoeuvre, as the data indicates starting salaries rose again in January, seeing their sharpest climb since September. We are by no means at a stage where the candidate is king, but perhaps they are moving closer to the throne.”

Demand for SQL, PHP and HTML skills

A recent report from CWJobs echoed KPMG’s findings, as permanent IT vacancies rose for the third quarter in 2012 its figures showed. Contract figures also remained strong, rising 1.2% in the last quarter.

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Data for the fourth quarter indicated the biggest demand pointed for candidates with SQL, but the skill saw a 1.4% decrease on the previous quarter.

Online work platform provider Elance also published findings revealing that demand for online talent surged in 2012, with a huge demand for mobile development and web programming.

According to the Global Online Employment Report, more companies outsourced to freelancers in the IT and programming sector, seeing an increase of 45% from the previous year. The top two skills were PHP and HTML, which were in demand from UK businesses. The amount spent on freelancers for IT and programming talent surpassed £5 million last year.

The demand for skills in web and mobile programming resulted in an increase in earnings for experts with top skills. For example HTML developers saw an earnings increase of 149%, PHP and CSS saw earnings spike by 108% and 103%. Mobile developers with Android earnings rose 146% and those with iOS saw earning rise 132% in 2012.

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