IT salary guide: Good news for tech specialists in 2012

NEW YORK, USA: Bluewolf, the global agile business consulting firm, today released its annual IT Salary Guide for 2012.

The annual data, based on salary information collected from thousands of IT staffing placements managed by Bluewolf across the country, is used by organizations and professionals alike to determine how technology is driving trends and opportunities in business today.

While the report shows the biggest increases in demand for mobile, data, cloud and user engagement technologists, it also reveals a decline in job candidates with the skill-sets required to meet those needs.

"Organizations aren't just competing against each other for qualified tech professionals - they're contending with an ever widening talent gap and the mass exodus of baby boomer retirees," warns Bluewolf co-founder and principal Michael Kirven.

"This poses a huge challenge for business as they scramble to adopt new flexible technologies that support the Agile Enterprise, but for those with the right skill-sets, this should come as good news," added Kirven.

The report, which covers major industries including media, telecom, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and financial services, provides the following key findings:

* Senior Software Developer salaries will rise 6 per cent + with an average high of $99,000 per year
* Starting salary ranges are predicted to jump to $98,000 per year for Android, iPhone and iPad developers
* Average salaries for Android, iPhone and iPad Developer will jump to $98,000 per year
* Top tier ERP, BI, and CRM Developer salaries will rise from $84,000-$105,000 to $88,000-$110,000
* Front-end and User Experience technologists are seeing spikes in demand with predicted salary ranges for HTML5 at $89,000-$127,000
* Security Analysts will experience a significant increase in salaries ranging from $94,000-$125,000 per year
* Data Analysts & BI Professional salaries will creep past pre-recession levels, rising between 5-6 per cent annually

On the executive level, CIOs and CSOs are seeing the most gains. In database administration, business intelligence analysts and data architects are enjoying the largest salary hikes while software and web development salaries are experiencing jumps all across the board. In information security, analysts are seeing the highest demand.

Next: Tech skills: What's hot and not...

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Tech skills: What's hot and not:

Mobile:
Hot: HTML5, iPhone/iPad and Android up 200+ per cent
Not: Blackberry and Windows Mobile down 50+ per cent 

Big data:
Hot: MySQL, HBase, Cognos and Informatica up 100+ per cent
Not: DB2 down 50+ per cent

Cloud computing:
Hot: Eloqua, Marketo, Salesforce and Google Apps up 100 per cent
Emerging: AWS-EC2 up 50+ per cent

User engagement:
Hot: UI Design up 100+ per cent
Not: Flash, Flex and ActionScript down 50+ per cent

"The growing demand we're seeing for tech professionals is driven by a need to bring greater agility into the enterprise," continued Kirven.

"This in turn is fueled by a volatile global economy combining with changes in customer expectations, workforce dynamics, and technology itself. But businesses and workers alike must invest in training to ensure the skills are there to meet emerging challenges and opportunities."