Job Market Booming For Skilled IT Professionals – Average IT Manager Makes $99,000, Staffer $73,000. Great time to switch companies or even industries

The tight labor supply and the increase in the economy are helping to propel IT wages, according to the Yoh Index.

The good times for highly skilled IT professionals continue to roll, as the Yoh Index of Technology Wages reported Monday that wages continue to rise faster than non-farm hourly wages nationwide. Compared with the same quarter in the previous year, IT wages rose 4.62 percent.

"There’s been an unabated growth in the last three quarters," said Jim Lanzalotto, Yoh’s vice president of strategy and marketing, in an interview "And I don’t see anything that can slow it down."

By W. David Gardner
TechWeb.com

Full Story: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186700548

***

Average IT Manager Makes $99,000, Staffer $73,000, InformationWeek Survey Finds

The survey of more than 10,000 IT pros finds base salaries creeping along, and bonuses the source of growth.

InformationWeek

Information technology is still a good way to make a buck, with the average manager making $99,000 and the average staffer $73,000, according to InformationWeek Research’s National IT Salary Survey. IT pros are relying on bonuses rather than base pay, however, to keep up with inflation.

Median base salaries grew slightly more than 1% year over year for staff and managers. That’s tight, but with bonuses, total compensation grew 3% for staff and 4% for managers. That brings total compensation back above 2001 levels, a high-water mark that pay has stayed below in recent years. The six-figure mark was more in reach this year: 10 managerial job categories show median pay greater than $100,000. Last year, only six broke that barrier.

Full Story: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186500737

***

IT Careers: Making A Change

Is your IT job feeling a little stale? It’s a great time to switch companies or even industries, and some emerging fields and technologies could make a change all the more intriguing.

By Jennifer Maselli
InformationWeek

Not long ago, Michael O’Brien, a man with 10 years of service as a Java programmer and software design expert for a major investment bank, started to reconsider his future. Departmental reorganizations, the pressures of working in financial services, and the specter of outsourcing all convinced O’Brien to seek a new position in a different industry.

"I grew tired of constantly having to reapply for my job," says O’Brien. "Most of the coding work was getting sent to Houston, and later most of that work was going to India. I got stuck with project planning and started to feel like my programming skills were getting rusty." Within four weeks’ time, O’Brien, who began his search in February, interviewed with several companies in industries spanning dot-coms, publishing, and technology. "There’s a lot of hiring going on. It’s a good time for IT job hunters in New York," he says.

Full Story: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186700294