Linux skills in short supply

In the following tables, 1="strongly agree", 2= "agree" 3=neither "agree" nor "disagree", 4="disagree", 5="strongly disagree".

Compared to last year, fewer respondents are saying they agree with turning to foreign IT pros, probably reflecting a slackening of demand.

There is also a growing distrust of IR35, at least in terms of it NOT affecting contractor availability.

An increased demand for in-house training may well reflect some respondents wanting to at least "skill up" in lieu of pay rises and perks.

In broad terms, this table shows a move towards the public sector and away from private-sector-dominated areas that are likely to have seen a slower growth or to have contracted over the past year.

Our breakdown of jobs by title also clearly depends on respondent definition. However, it perhaps isn't surprising positions such as "IT consultant" and "IT contractor" have seen a notable decrease. However, the number of you who say you are a "board director", "IT director/CIO" (clearly not mutually exclusive with the former) or an "IT manager" has risen. Meanwhile the number of "privacy/security officers" has remained constant and "E-commerce director/manager" has seen a decline, perhaps as this position becomes more widely accepted and is integrated into other roles. Of course such integration could also be the result of cut-backs or the scrapping of some e-business projects.

While these figures look fairly healthy, given a stalled market for many IT skills, lay-offs and so on, they should be looked at in terms of inflation. The headline UK inflation rate for the 12 months to February -- a month in which we ran the first half of our survey -- had crept up to 3.2 per cent, or 3.0 per cent, excluding mortgage costs (the "underlying rate") according to government figures.

This table demonstrates a clear move away from London and the South-East of England generally, which are clearly areas with high living costs.

Northern Ireland and "non-UK" were the only other two options to see a decline.

Though by no means completely scientific, this part of our poll suggests there are now fewer women in the sector than last year, which is perhaps surprising. Needless to say the percentage points decrease in women is matched by the same increase in the men.

As in previous years, the figures to look out for here are in the first and third categories -- the people we like to call "happy permies" and "happy contractors". The obvious interpretation is that as the downturn has bitten, fewer people in IT eke out a living as an independent contractor -- either through choice or because of factors such as IR35 or work drying up altogether. While the percentage point figures are small, the "happy contractor" figure has actually dropped by 26.5 per cent. Last year we failed to include an "I consider myself unemployed" category, though clearly many contractors inbetween jobs don't consider themselves unemployed.