Then I'm glad I'm in college for this field (programming). Those juicy wages will allow me to repay student loans more quickly.
I'm assuming these wages are global, yes?
Janco’s 2012 IT salary survey is due for official release on Jan 10. What did the report find are the current trends in IT salaries?
The job market in general is in a perilous position across the West. Graduates struggle to find employment or even secure unpaid internships, working professionals find themselves presented with redundancy papers, and a record number of young people are out of work. Some have labelled school leavers and recent graduates as ‘the lost generation’ — who without a means to gain necessary jobs skills may not have very good future prospects.
(Source: Allen Sima/Flickr)
According to reports, information technology salaries have increased over the past year. Not by much, but it could be a promising start — and perhaps an omen of a slowly recovering technology industry.
Updated twice a year to reflect the current IT market trends, the 2012 Janco IT salary survey — to be officially released on Jan 10 — contains a number of statistics that may bode well for both working professionals and those attempting to get in to the industry. If salaries are increasing, even slightly, then extra funding may be invested in job creation and skills training.
However, not everyone was so lucky. Some IT professionals did see a drop in their take-home pay, perhaps reflecting the precarious financial situations of corporations.
Some interesting statistics of the survey:
Large corporations and salary increases:
- IT professionals: 0.45%. Average salary $81,644 from $81,273.
- Network services supervisors: 6.7%. Average salary $57,358 from $53,754.
- Programmers/analysts: 6.14%. Average salary $80,051 from $75,420.
- VPs of technical services: 5.4%. Average salary $149,118 from $141,531.
- LAN application support analysts: 5.13%. Average salary $63,159 from $60,075.
- Librarians: 5.12%. Average salary $46,010 from $43,770.
Large corporations and salary decreases:
- Senior network specialists: -7.49%. Average salary $79,069 from $85,468.
- Operation analysts: -4.45%. Average salary $59,160 from $61,915.
- OS production managers: -4.14%. Average salary $93,346 from $97,413.
- Technical services specialists: -4.14%. Average salary $63,160 from $65,888.
- Production services managers: -6.74%. Average salary $85,900 from $92,107.
Middleweight companies and salary increases:
- IT professionals:1.19%. Average salary $74,43 from $73,934.
- Computer operations shift managers: 10.75%. Average salary $68,187 from $61,569.
- Computer operations managers: 6.46%. Average earning $86,287 from $81,051.
- Information center managers: 6.31%. Average salary $63,986 from $60,188.
Middleweight companies and salary decreases:
- VPs of security (or CSOs): -8.24%. Average salary $118,212 from $128,828.
- Production services managers: -6.74%. Average salary $85,900 from $92,107.
- Training and documentation managers: -4.4%. Average salary $61,224 from $64,043.
- Production services supervisors: -3.23%. Average salary $71,975 from $69,092.
According to the report, companies are still attempting to stem skill shortages and are hiring more staff on both full and contract terms.
While middleweight companies are trying to fill positions such as programmers and midlevel professionals, larger corporations are focusing on hiring staff for Internet systems, networking and Web analysts.
Related:
Amongst other considerations... if we need more talent and skill, then it needs to be affordable to most and right now proper education is anything but "affordable". 
