Skills shortage pushes IT salaries up

A new study of the UK IT jobs market has found permanent salaries increased 4.1 per cent over the last year.

IT recruitment specialist CV Screen monitored over 11,000 advertised positions in the UK during Q1 2008 and found that the average advertised salary for an IT professional in the UK is now £34,217.

By comparison, average earnings including bonuses rose by 4.0 per cent in the year to March 2008, according to the UK Statistics Authority. Average earnings, excluding bonuses or regular pay, rose by 3.8 per cent in the year to March, unchanged from February 2008.

The recruiter said demand for candidates with strong skills in areas including .Net, C# and PHP was responsible for pushing IT earnings growth ahead of the national average.

"There are certain technical skills where there is still a considerable war for talent," said CV Screen's Matthew Iveson.

He said the IT job market would hold up well in spite of the wider economic uncertainty and even potentially buck the trend.

"It is likely that, as a result of the rising costs of living in the UK, more candidates will seek to move for financial reasons, thus putting further upward pressure on IT salaries," Iveson added.

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