IT professionals see wages inch up

Salaries for IT workers in the UK have risen by two percent in the past year to reach an average of £39,754, according to research by recruitment agency CV Screen.

People with .Net, Java, PHP and e-commerce skills are in particular demand, the company said in a report released on Tuesday.

"We are continually receiving new vacancies for candidates with strong skills in these areas and this has forced employers to offer higher salaries to attract the best calibre of candidate," CV Screen said in a statement.

The recruiter looked at 8,000 ads posted to job boards and the national press in the first three months of 2012 for its study. It considered 50 types of IT role, ranging from IT manager to Java developer to helpdesk support. It found that salaries in general had risen slightly from the same quarter in 2011, when the average IT wage was £38,946.

"The IT sector is one which has suffered less than other sectors in what has been a challenging jobs market," the company said. "The last 12 months has certainly seen increased demand for IT staff, and we were not surprised to see that salaries had crept up."

The last 12 months has certainly seen increased demand for IT staff, and we were not surprised to see that salaries had crept up.

– CV Screen

IT director jobs had the highest average wage, at £89,900, followed distantly by programme manager (£68,604) and technical architect (£62,950). The lowest was for first-line IT support, at £18,819.

However, the two-percent growth seen last year was lower than in the company's 2011 report, which found a rise of five percent.

In addition, the 2012 study uncovered a wide regional variation in salary change. While London showed the healthiest growth, with an 11-percent increase in wage levels, the north west, south west and Wales all saw double-digit drops, with Welsh IT workers getting 13-percent less than seen the previous year.