Shortages push up pay

A slump in the number of graduates and the growth off-shoring within the IT industry has created a shortage of workers which is fuelling wage inflation, according to a report today.

Pay for support technicians has risen by 13% while network and systems engineers' salaries have increased by almost 10% over the past year, according to research by Incomes Data Services. IDS blames the increasing trend towards "entry level" jobs being located overseas and a 48% fall in applicants for IT degrees since 2001. However, the IDS survey showed that elsewhere in the sector pay rises were more modest. Average across-the-board pay rose by 3.5% while pay for senior management was "largely static". A separate survey by ReThink Recruitment reports that almost half of IT directors expect to increase staffing levels over the next 12 months, against 13% who believe the headcount will fall.

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