Salaries for UK IT professionals are continuing to rise owing to high demand for skilled IT workers.

An in depth analysis of the IT job market in the UK carried out by CV Screen, a specialist IT recruitment consultancy, analysed over 60,000 advertised IT positions across 60 permanent roles.

The average advertised salary for an IT professional in the UK is £31,446.25, the survey said.

There is particular high demand for skilled developers with Java, .Net and Visual Basic, and candidates who hold Microsoft certifications such as MCP, MCSE or MCSD are increasingly sought after.

Matthew Iveson, managing director at CV Screen, said: "Demand for IT staff in the UK continues to rise, with the South East and Thames Valley regions being particularly buoyant.

"We are currently experiencing increased demand for skilled IT staff which is resulting on upward pressure on IT salaries.

"The recession in the IT industry two to three years ago resulted in much lower salaries being offered to new staff recruited during this period.

"The two-tiered salary structure which many employers faced has now been corrected as IT professionals have moved on, in many cases with a higher salary being a large contributing factor in their move.

Iveson added that the IT jobs market has shifted considerably over the past 18 months and is now a candidate driven marketplace.

"This is great for the IT professional but is causing headaches for the employer as they are forced to find more innovative ways of recruiting and retaining staff," he said.