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The demand for IT workers continues to grow, and salaries are inching up
along with job demand, according to a new study.
And it’s a dramatic change from the job market of just two years ago,
according to Scott Melland, president and CEO of New York-based Dice
Inc., an online recruiting service for IT professionals.
”Two years or three years ago, there were a lot more technical
professionals looking for something different or they were unemployed and
looking for work,” Melland told Datamation. ”Today, that is not
the case. Many companies are being forced to pull talented people from
other companies… They’re luring them in with better salaries and the
age-old attraction for tech professionals — the opportunity to work on
the latest technologies or high-impact projects.”
Getting back into a strong job market where workers have the luxury of
being courted by other companies is a far cry from the long unemployment
lines where many IT professionals found themselves after the dot-com
bubble burst and the technology sector went into a steep slide. Two or
three years ago, companies found themselves flooded with resumes for any
kind of IT job opening.
Now the tables are starting to turn again. And IT professionals may find
themselves in the driver’s seat, according to Melland.
Dice’s analysts report that job postings on their site increased 3.6
percent over the past month, to 79,358. They also note that requests for
technology professionals with J2EE/Java experience showed the greatest
gain this past month, with postings rising 10.8 percent, to 10,357.
Dice also announced the quarterly update of its salary survey. As of Oct.
10, the survey found the average salary for a technology professional was
$69,700, an increase of 2.8 percent since December 2004. The average
salary of a contract worker was $87,107, while the average salary for
permanent employees increased to $65,479 from $64,300 at the end of 2004.
”I think this is all part of a much larger movement out there, which is
increased technical spending by U.S. corporations and the Department of
Defense and the government,” says Melland. ”That technical spending
really is the result of a lot of companies and agencies upgrading their
technologies. We’re still in the midst of a tech upgrade cycle that many
companies are going through. They need more technical professionals to
make those upgrades and then manage the new systems they’re putting in
place.
”In general, it has to do with catching up on projects and
infrastructure that they did not upgrade in the early part of 2001 to
2003. In corporate America, there was Sarbanes-Oxley on top of this. In
the financial services firms, there’s a lot of technology being applied
on the customer side of the fence.”
Melland says these are the most sough-after positions:
”In terms of overall demand, in those five key areas, there are plenty
of jobs available,” says Melland. ”There is a large demand for network
people who have experience setting up secure networks.
”I think this is a great time to be a technology professional in the
United States if you have some of these technical skills.”
