IT Salaries See Slight Rise in 2012

IT businesses would need to take steps to retain key workers due to the rise in voluntary turnover rates

Despite generally healthy growth in the overall IT jobs market, IT workers hoping to improve their standard of living in 2012 will not likely find relief through annual salary raises, according to the Computer Economics "2012 IT Salary Report," which found IT organizations are planning to hand out average raises of 2.8 percent this year.

Employment by technology companies grew more than 2 percent last year, while the unemployment rate for all workers stood at 8.5 percent at year’s end, according to the report whose findings are based on a fourth-quarter survey of more than 130 U.S.-based IT organizations.

The report said that even organizations at the 75th percentile are budgeting for only a 3 percent wage increase for employees, which lags well behind the 3.4 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index for the 12-month period through November 2011. On a positive note, most IT workers will get some measure of increase. Even organizations at the 25th percentile are increasing salaries for existing employees by 1.8 percent, which was deemed an improvement over the no-raise policy that prevailed last year in the bottom quartile. Still, the typical raises planned for 2012 are somewhat compressed across all quartiles and show little variation by job function or level, according to the study's findings.

“Developers with skills in mobile app development will remain in tight supply, as will those with experience in supporting infrastructure virtualization,” the report said. “In the IT world, there are always skill shortages in the growth technologies, and many IT organizations have no choice but pay up for those skills or turn to service providers for in-demand expertise—and pay a premium.”

“Although there are modest improvements in the general employment picture, our research indicates hiring by IT organizations across all sectors will remain weak in 2012, especially among large organizations,” the report said. “If the domestic economy continues to improve, we anticipate some upward pressure on wages, however.”

The organization said IT businesses would need to take steps to retain key workers due to the rise in voluntary turnover rates. Voluntary turnover rate for IT organizations, after dropping to nearly 2 percent in 2010, is on track to return to normal levels in 2012. Turnover rose to 4 percent to 2011, and Computer Economics said it anticipates the rate returning to the 5 percent level, which was typical during the period prior to the 2008 recession. “As such, IT organizations will face demands for higher pay from some workers,” the report noted.

The latest IT jobs report from online job site Dice suggested tech hiring managers are resolute in their staffing priorities for 2012; they need innovative professionals who design, code, build and operate. The report found that developers dominate the new year’s most pressing hiring needs for a second straight year, although ops professionals made their list debut. According to data compiled from nearly 1,200 tech-focused hiring managers and recruiters, Java developers are the top priority. Demand for tech professionals with Java know-how has grown year-over-year for more than two years as measured by job postings on Dice.

Janco has captured IT compensation data since 1996 and publishes its IT Salary Survey semi-annually. A summary of the most recent salary survey can be downloaded by visiting Janco IT Salary Survey at http://www.e-janco.com/Salary.htm.

Standard Edition IT Hiring Kit

IT Salary Survey - The salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year via extensive internet-based survey instruments and completed survey forms from businesses throughout the United States and Canada. The survey data reflects IT salaries in 78 major cities in the United States as well as 23 cities in Canada. Summary data is provided in both the PDF document and a separate Excel Spreadsheet.
Interview and Hiring Guide - Anyone conducting an interview should be aware of questions that are illegal to ask prospective employees. This has all of the tools that you need to keep the process objective and key the enterprise out of court.
Salary Survey Job Descriptions (PDF) The job descriptions are provided as an indexed PDF document for all of the positions surveyed. The PDF file has a copyright date of 2011 and can be viewed and printed.

Silver Edition IT Hiring Kit

IT Salary Survey - The salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year via extensive internet-based survey instruments and completed survey forms from businesses throughout the United States and Canada. The survey data reflects IT salaries in 78 major cities in the United States as well as 23 cities in Canada. Summary data is provided in both the PDF document and a separate Excel Spreadsheet.
Interview and Hiring Guide - Anyone conducting an interview should be aware of questions that are illegal to ask prospective employees. This has all of the tools that you need to keep the process objective and key the enterprise out of court.
Salary Survey Job Descriptions (WORD & PDF) The job descriptions are provided as individual WORD (.docx) and PDF files. The job descriptions have a copyright date of 2011.

Gold Edition IT Hiring Kit

IT Salary Survey - The salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year via extensive internet-based survey instruments and completed survey forms from businesses throughout the United States and Canada. The survey data reflects IT salaries in 78 major cities in the United States as well as 23 cities in Canada. Summary data is provided in both the PDF document and a separate Excel Spreadsheet.
Interview and Hiring Guide - Anyone conducting an interview should be aware of questions that are illegal to ask prospective employees. This has all of the tools that you need to keep the process objective and key the enterprise out of court.
Salary Survey Job Descriptions (WORD & PDF) The job descriptions are provided as an indexed PDF document for all of the positions surveyed. The PDF file has a copyright date of 2011 and can be viewed and printed.
Internet and IT Job Descriptions (WORD) The 243 job descriptions have been extracted from Janco's Internet IT and Position Descriptions HandiGuide^® Each job description has a copyright date of 2012 and comes in WORD 2007 format using long file names.

IT Salary Survey - The salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year via extensive internet-based survey instruments and completed survey forms from businesses throughout the United States and Canada. The survey data reflects IT salaries in 78 major cities in the United States as well as 23 cities in Canada. Summary data is provided in both the PDF document and a separate Excel Spreadsheet.
Interview and Hiring Guide - Anyone conducting an interview should be aware of questions that are illegal to ask prospective employees. This has all of the tools that you need to keep the process objective and key the enterprise out of court.
Salary Survey Job Descriptions (WORD & PDF) The job descriptions are provided as an indexed PDF document for all of the positions surveyed. The PDF file has a copyright date of 2011 and can be viewed and printed.
Internet and IT Job Descriptions (WORD) The 243 job descriptions have been extracted from Janco's Internet IT and Position Descriptions HandiGuide^®. Each job description has a copyright date of 2012 and comes in WORD 2007 format using long file names.
Internet and IT Positions Description HandiGuide® (PDF) The Internet and IT Position Descriptions HandiGuide^® contains over 650 pages; which includes sample organization charts, a job progression matrix, and 243 job descriptions. The book also addresses Fair Labor Standards and the ADA. Also included are tools to help you expand, evaluate and define your enterprise's unique additional required. Those tools include:
- Job Evaluation Questionnaire
- Position Description Questionnaire
- Job Progression Matrix (Job Family Classifications)