The IT market has seen above average salary increases in the past 18 months and this is expected to continue though ease in some areas of the market.
Areas of employment include:
- Business intelligence
- Security and risk including fraud and virus control
- Processing and authentication particularly in banking and finance
- Contracting for large scale projects such as ERP
Skills needed include:
- Global skills which are transportable across functions and countries
- Multilingual skills – J2EE, .NET, Citrix, Windows 2000/NT/XP, Novell and Unix
- Corporate governance and compliance skills for the ITC sector
- Business intelligence
Changing demographics of the IT sector in recent years with people exiting rather than entering the industry and the resultant shortages means increased demand and shorter supply. Candidates are building skills and their careers so companies are focusing on ways of attracting and retaining the best people especially as long as the sector remains buoyant.
Ambition predicts demand within the ITC sector will remain strong for the rest of 2005 and IT budgets will continue to grow. Emerging markets such as India and China are expected to present growth opportunities. At the same time, wireless and broadband communications are also expected to grow creating an emphasis on technologies that can deliver speed and security – and with that, demand for people with business, product and functional support skills.
Source: Recruitment Extra, July 2005.