While pay for IT skills on the whole dropped last quarter, according to a study by Foote Partners, half a dozen areas saw an increase in pay despite the troubled economy.
The recent results of Foote's Foote Partners' IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index found the first overall decline since mid-2004. Foote saw a .5 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to the third quarter.
[Is tech in more trouble than we think? Read more about that in InfoWorld's Special Report: IT and the financial crisis.]
"It was inevitable for skills pay to start reflecting the hard times we're in," explains David Foote, co-founder and CEO of Foote Research, in the report. "But the big difference this time around is the strong counter-trending. We've never seen anything quite like this before."
That counter-trending is what Foote called "an urgent demand for talent" in six areas: management/methodology/process, database, messaging and communications skills, architecture, security, and networking skills.
"The ones that are the most important are architecture, security, and process skills," explains Bill Reynolds, a spokesman for Foote Partners.
Management/methodology/process skills pay leapt upward by 5.6 percent, while IT folks with database skills generated 2.9 percent more, and messaging and communications professionals garnered 2.9 percent more money during last year's fourth quarter.
The report also found several skills that have decreased in value during the last quarter, including application development, SAP and other enterprise application, operating systems, Web/e-commerce, and systems networking skills.
The highest paying individual skills in the same time period, meanwhile, included security tools and SAP's NetWeaver.
Foote Partners' Reynolds points out that the report tracks skills pay, rather than salaries. "Skills pay is much more dynamic than salaries and tends to move every three to six months," Reynolds says. "Salaries change over a year and don't tell you as much about what's happening in the short-term."
Foote Partners' IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index concentrates on the pay for 354 skills and certifications earned by 22,550 IT professionals in the US and Canada.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive Careers Resource Alerts
Recommend This
