IT professionals go in for the skill

The first three months of 2000 saw a surge in demand for permanent staff with ebusiness skills. Java and HTML are the skills in greatest demand, according to the latest Springdex survey from recruiter Spring.

Springdex is based on the analysis of more than 80,000 records on contractors and candidates, using data from Spring.

Average salary rates for permanent staff with HTML skills rose by 30% to more than £27,000. Permanent staff with Java skills saw their pay rise 10% compared with the fourth quarter of 1999, to an average #32,883 a year.

Demand for Java skills was required for only six per cent of permanent placements made between January and March 2000.

However Katherine Tulpa, field marketing director at Spring warned:"There's a definite shortage of these skills. It's an area that needs attention."

John Eary, head of skills source consultancy at the National Computing Centre, said:Skills focusing on the area of keeping systems up-and-running in a 24/7 environment will be at a premium. New demand for ebusiness is adding to demand for web development

We're getting to the second and third-generation web sites now, so it's a double whammy for front end skills.

Windows NT skills remain the most sought after in the IT contractor market, being demanded in more than a quarter of all new contracts raised. Average UK weekly fees were up only 0.8% over the previous quarter, however.

There's been dramatic growth in demand for Cobol skills among both permanent IT staff and contractors. Some Cobol contractors were called back in mid-January to work on maintenance projects, said Tulpa. However, Eary described the Cobol figures as a blip. I wouldn't think we'll see huge demand going forward, he said.

Tulpa said contractor rates had, in almost all cases, either fallen or remained stable. The market only started taking off again recently. I would anticipate a rise in rates over the next quarter, especially in web development, Java, C++ and XML, she said.