IT professionals seeing strong demand and rising salaries

Demand for IT professionals continued to grow in 2010 despite the economic downturn, seeing a five per cent increase in the final quarter of the year and a rise in salaries, according to the latest figures from recruitment sites CWJobs.co.uk and JobAdsWatch.co.uk.

The figures show that demand for IT staff has now grown for six consecutive quarters, although job levels are still down by almost half compared to the pre-recession levels in 2007 and 2008.

Overall pay rates in the industry increased by five per cent last year compared to 2009, and by one per cent quarter on quarter, and developers saw the greatest pay rises.

Job demand in the retail sector increased throughout the year, while vacancies in the finance sector fell by six per cent in the fourth quarter, the first time since 2009.

"Last year the IT recruitment market really showed its resilience in the face of numerous challenges while the economy was still in recovery," said Richard Nott, web site director at CWJobs.

"The industry is evolving, particularly where emerging skills such as Agile Scrum are increasing in demand."

Alongside increased demand for IT professionals skilled in the Agile software development methodology, the research found that Android- and VMware-related skills became popular in the last two quarters of 2010.

The figures come just days after a major study by E-skills UK found that the jobs market for IT workers will grow at around five times the national rate in 2011.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has pledged to create 4,000 new jobs in the UK as part of its Britain Works initiative.