IT staffing growth and problems remain, despite downturn

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The IT employment trends emerging as cost-conscious organisations look to update their systems will create stable growth in the IT job market, according to the National Computing Centre (NCC).

Nearly half (49 per cent) of respondents to the NCC’s Benchmark of Salaries and Employment Trends in IT 2009 expected their total number of IT employees to increase over the next two years - which amounts to the same figure as last year.

And a third of the organisations questioned, representing 6,461 IT staff, said they still had problems recruiting and retaining staff.

Christine Jack, NCC's research manager, said: “Outsourced software and desktop services are maturing and will become a more financially attractive alternative for cash-strapped companies. The IT services sector is making plans now to staff-up and to meet the demand.”

In fact, the IT services sector was seen by 80 per cent of respondents as driving the biggest increase in IT staff numbers over the next two years, with over 60 per cent predicting an increase in numbers of over 20 per cent.

Other sectors that emerged as relatively strong in terms of IT staffing growth predictions included government (named by 62.5 per cent of respondents), other service areas (57 per cent) and finance (55 per cent).

By contrast, only 25 per cent of respondents from transport, utilities and communications, and 32.7 per cent from the manufacturing sector were predicting IT staffing growth.

This systems and support skills sector was expected to grow by 10.2 per cent over the next two years, compared to an expected growth rate last year of 8.1 per cent.

And the highest predicted two-year growth rate was related to systems development, which is tipped to increase its staffing levels by 13.1 per cent.

Staff turnover has increased from 11.9 per cent of remaining staff levels last year to 12.6 per cent. But the level of overall IT staff shortages has risen from 6.8 per cent to 7.9 per cent – the highest perceived shortage reported in the survey since 2001.

Specific IT skills deemed problematic in terms of recruitment or retention include those related to Oracle, SAP, Microsoft .NET, web development, business analysis and network support. New skills needed over the next 12 months are likely to be those focused on VMware and virtualisation, .NET C# security issues and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework.

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