IT skills gap is boosting pay

High demand and a shortage of SAP, Oracle and Microsoft skills are pushing up IT salaries.

Top wages for Oracle developers increased 14 per cent in the past year to £80,000, while the hourly rate for contractors was up 20 per cent to £60, according to research by recruitment firm Robert Walters.

“Technology recruitment growth remained steady throughout 2007 and was underpinned by the launch of a number of high-profile and large-scale projects,” said the survey.

“The long-term nature of many of these projects, coupled with those planned to be developed during 2008, will serve to further diminish the available talent pool and increase the competition for candidates.”

Growing demand is a taste of things to come. A study in January by sector skills council e-Skills UK predicted that the IT industry needs 140,000 new entrants per year to the end of 2012 ­ half of which will need to be recruited in from other professions.

Only 19 per cent will come from education, while 31 per cent will join from other sources, such as career breaks, early retirement or unemployment.

IT managers are realising the importance of sharing the skills that are available across their organisation, said Ollie Ross, head of research at blue-chip user group The Corporate IT Forum.

“Cross-pollination of skills allows businesses to build stronger workforces,” she said.

“Business people can offer a transfer of knowledge. More of the softer skills such as people management and communications are being represented in IT. We could also start to see traffic the other way as IT people grasp these skills and opt to move around.”

Some companies are addressing shortages by bringing in workers from overseas; in many cases this is taking place through inter-company transfers.

The number of work visas issued to non-EU IT professionals has trebled over the past five years, according to figures obtained by the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (Atsco) under the Freedom of Information Act.

Last year, 38,450 work visas were issued, representing a rise of 14 per cent on 2006.

Companies going down this route should be doing it for the right reasons, said Atsco chief executive Ann Swain.

“There are people here waiting to work, so work permits for inter-company transfers should only be issued to accommodate a skills shortage and not to obtain cheap labour,” she said.

Overseas workers have a place in UK IT, but their availability must not discourage employers from training existing staff, said Peter Skyte, national officer at trade union Unite.

“There needs to be the right balance between enabling employers to transfer from abroad and protecting the jobs and career development of resident workers,” he said.

“If companies rely on attracting skills from outside of the EU, there will be a decreasing incentive to carry out training for those skills within the UK.”