IT salaries, jobs on the rise

IT salaries in Australia jumped between 10 and 25 percent in calendar Q2 2005 over the same period last year with sales consultants now earning up to $345,000 per year, according to a report compiled by recruiter Icon.

Around 60,000 IT jobs were advertised in Q2, an increase of 20,000 on the same quarter in 2004.

The report analysed online advertising data relating to IT employment. It found that Queensland and Western Australia are leading IT job growth with a 65 percent increase in IT employment from Q2 2004 to Q2 2005. New South Wales recorded a 25 percent growth rate for the same period.

Other jobs were also commanding healthy salaries. System integrators could earn up to $200,000 a year and systems developers $175,000 a year, the report said.

Business analysts, trainers and testers were in huge demand as organisations embarked on existing system upgrades or development of new applications to support new business requirements.

There was big demand for IT professionals due to a skills shortage and employers were having to “shell out more money” to get staff, according to Baldev Bedi, regional director at Icon.

Bedi said that 80 percent of all jobs advertised were for contract work, which reflected stable IT market conditions and also indicated that IT professionals were less concerned about job security.

“The continuing high demand for contract work is providing IT professionals with the opportunity to seek variety in their work while earning more,” he said.

Demand for IT jobs had also been strong over the past two months, he said.