IT pros looking for new jobs

IT professionals are as optimistic as ever when it comes to their pay and their chances to find a new role, according to a new survey.

Most workers in the sector are expecting a raise of about 4.5 per cent this year, on top of a 3.3 per cent increase last year, according to a report by recruiter Computer People, based on a survey by researchers Loudhouse of some 5,000 IT professionals in the UK.

The average pay for a full-time IT sector employee is £35,160 - over £10,000 more than the average pay for all sectors.

However, six per cent of permanent IT staff claimed they made less than £10,000 a year, while just one per cent made between £90,000 and £100,000 annually. The largest proportion, about 15 per cent, earned £40,000 to £50,000.

London reigns as the best paying spot for IT staff, offering an average £41,474. Northerners in the sector had the poorest earnings, at an average £34,130.

Skill sets also caused pay scale differences. IT professionals trained in Cobol earned an average of £41,870, while those who focused on Cisco earned an average of £32,320. However, the type of IT sub-sector a person worked in was also important, said Nick Dettmar, managing director of Computer People, explaining that financial IT workers tended to earn the highest pay.

The majority of those surveyed said they were looking for new work, the survey also showed. Some 39 per cent said they were seriously looking for a new position, while another 48 per cent are merely keeping an eye on the market. But 27 per cent expected to move to a new job within just three months.

And not all those jobs will be in the UK. Of the surveyed professionals, 65 per cent said they look to other countries for jobs.

Dettmar said the high turnover was an indication of the market. "IT is quite a fast-paced industry," he said. "If employers don't keep their technology up-to-date or offer enough challenges, people move."

Indeed, 37 per cent said they moved for career progression, 25 per cent for a better salary, and 16 per cent to get new challenges.

Despite the high turnover potential, few companies put enough focus on staff retention, Dettmar said. The survey also asked Computer People's clients - the companies which are hiring IT workers - if they saw retention as a board-level issue. Just a quarter said they did, despite 30 per cent of companies saying deserting staff had hurt their profits. "Staff turnover and attrition in the IT sector is something people at board level should be looking at," said Dettmar.

While the high number of people looking for new jobs suggests short work terms, the average tenure for permanent workers is 2.8 years, and they expect to they expect to stay in their roles for another 1.25 years.

Contract workers stick around for an average six months, the survey found.

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