Information technology professionals have continued to benefit from a surge in pay tied specifically to both certified and non-certified technical skills that began in late 2004, according to new research by Foote Partners LLC, the New Canaan, Conn.-based IT research consultancy. The study of market values for more than 170 skills involved 48,000 IT workers in North American and Europe surveyed from January to April 2005.
"We projected this continued growth earlier this year, due to several factors now in play," notes David Foote, the firm's co-founder, president and chief research officer. "Probably the most obvious has been the economy and the return of hiring and concerns about retention of talent connected to legacy systems and critical technology and business initiatives. But it's really much more than that. Employers are once again investing in onshore applications development skills notwithstanding their desire to offshore some applications and business processes. They're demanding more industry-specific experience to go with tech skills mastery, and even systems-specific solutions experience within an industry, which is a fairly new development on the scale that we've been seeing it."
Overall pay for all non-certified and certified skills grew 2.8 percent and 6 percent respectively in the first three months of 2005 according to Foote Partners' Hot Technical Skills and Certifications Pay Index, with a 3.6 percent and 4 percent increase respectively for the twelve months ending April 1, 2005. At this time last year, annual data were in negative numbers.
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www.footepartners.com/FPnewsrelease_2005annualskills.pdf
Taken from Information Security Bulletin.