Growth in demand for IT professionals surged to 8% for two consecutive quarters in 2010, outpacing recruitment of colleagues in other professions. The latest data from CWJobs reveals growth for six consecutive quarters, with pay rises of 5% also bucking the national trend.
Developer jobs enjoyed the biggest pay rise, up 5% from last year, with project manager jobs also flush with a 3% salary hike. Despite fears of a double dip, data collated by the IT jobs site shows that businesses are reaching out for IT skills. It also confirms the findings, published by government agency e-skills, of a set of ‘super skills’ that businesses most desire.
Winning trio
VMware, the virtualisation platform, Android, the Google mobile device operating system, and Agile, the project management method, are among the rising stars. "As IT professionals continue to adapt their skills and experience to this ever-changing environment, they will remain in a strong position as 2011 brings them a new set of challenges", comments Richard Nott, website director of CWJobs.
For project managers and developers Agile and Scrum are the skills to have, although interestingly, Agile features on the top five skills for contractors, not permanent. "We use Agile in our own IT department for rolling out projects – it’s becoming the de facto methodology of the IT department," confirms Nott.
Retail’s rising star
"For the first time that I can remember, retail is in the number two spot," reports Nott of job volumes by sector. Retail has nudged ahead of media in volumes of IT recruitment by dint of record levels of online shopping. Internet sales hit a record £58.8bn in 2010, an increase of 18% on the previous year - outstripping analysts' forecasts of a 13% growth rate.
High levels of IT activity in retail were also generated by the upgrade of point of sale (PoS) systems. Supermarkets that had held off capital investment projects after the credit crunch finally rolled out self-service systems throughout their stores last year.
Language league
In the languages league table, trusty favourites SQL, C, C#, .NET and SQL Server remained bunched at the top. Java and Oracle also get added into the mix when it comes to sought-after skills for contractors.
Although C saw a dip in fortunes of 4% compared to other language contenders, it will be around for aeons to come. “It is a fantastic language and not every company needs to be at the cutting edge,” said Nott.
Down – but not out
Unsurprisingly, the public sector opportunities nose dived and CWJobs saw a 50% fall in the numbers of government jobs advertised last year. However, given the vastness of this IT empire, there are still vacancies to apply for.
A report from local government IT association, Socitm, suggests that government IT departments will get a reprieve from harsh job cuts as technology is harnessed to deliver services more efficiently. Borrowing to spend on IT is up, and the IT budget has been reduced less than last year, according to Socitm.
Skills shortage continues
The survey spells good news for the IT professional community, believes Nott. “Good IT staff are still hard to come by – there is still an underlying skills shortage in the country although it is masked by a difficult economy at the moment”.
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