IT Salaries Coming Back to Life in Q2

After a dismal first quarter, IT salaries are showing some signs of recovering in the second quarter, according to a new report.

The mean salary for all IT positions in large enterprises moved up to $80,030 in the second quarter. That’s up from $78,687 in the last quarter of 2002, reports Janco Associates, an international consulting company based in Park City, Utah.

”There is good news,” says Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates. ”The deflationary spiral of IT compensation, which has lasted for four quarters, seems to be over. Since the end of the [War in Iraq], salaries have stopped falling and some enterprises are planning on new hiring.”

Janulaitis adds that more enterprises are shopping around for senior experienced staff to fill new positions, increasing the demand for IT professionals with more than five years of experience.

This is good news after Yoh Company, a technology staffing firm based in Philadelphia, reported that IT workers had suffered nearly a 10 percent drop in pay rates in the first quarter of this year.

Yoh analysts estimate that IT workers suffered a 9.2 percent drop in wages in the first quarter. In contrast, pay rates in the telecom field grew by 4.1 percent; engineering grew by 3 percent and the scientific sectors grew by 2.5 percent.

According to the new Janco report, security professionals are seeing positive signs. They have been upgraded within many enterprises. Janco analysts report that while IT security occupied lower- to mid-level positions before 2000, this year they are mid-level to senior-level positions.

Janco also reports high demand for IT workers specializing in network areas of e-commerce, voice/wireless communications, object programming, data security and data warehousing.