Demand for IT staff is highest since 2001

The demand for IT and communications workers in the UK is at its highest level since the end of 2001.

There was also a rise in employed workers looking for new jobs — up to 59,000 — according to the latest quarterly IT and comms sector group report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

The third quarter of 2007 also showed a decrease in average salaries, although the long-term trend remains positive, according to the REC, with the average wage having risen by around £100 per week compared to 2001.

During the third quarter of last year, around one million IT staff were in work in the UK — slightly fewer than in the previous three quarters, but still the fifth-highest quarterly level in the past five years.

The REC predicts systems administrators and technical sales support staff, as well as people trained in SQL server and Javascript, will be the most in-demand and the hardest roles to fill.

During 2007, hot skills that were increasingly listed as requirements in permanent-job adverts included expertise in the programming language C#, SQL Server and Tibco products.