Optimism in IT employees is high at the moment. In a recent survey conducted by Computer World on IT salaries around the country, the percentage of 2013 respondents who said they gained ground financially in the past two years was slightly higher than it was in 2012 (33%, up from 29% last year), and the percentage of those who said they lost ground dropped (28%, down from 32%). Another indicator of increased confidence: The percentage of respondents mentioning the economy as a challenge for IT workers continued to tail off, falling to 17% this year from 19% last year and 28% in 2011. Respondents to the 2013 survey reported that their salaries rose an average of 2.3%, which is slightly better than last year’s average increase of 2.1% and 2011’s more modest 1.5% uptick.
Perhaps the biggest driver of the new optimism is an increased demand for IT professionals in what recruiters are calling an employee’s job market. The Association for Computing Machinery, for example, projects that the number of new computing jobs will increase by 150,000 per year for the next eight years. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among U.S. IT workers was significantly lower than the overall unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2012 — 3.3% versus 7.8%.
If salaries and demand are up, so too is the pressure to perform. As they have for several years, survey respondents reported a disconnect between compensation and workload. Among those who said they felt more pressure over the past year to increase productivity (68%) or take on new tasks (75%), only 12% reported that their salaries had been adjusted to reflect the added workload.
Is this survey accurate when related to you? Are there more job opportunities for IT pros and higher salaries? Remember, we have IT and Business training available for nearly every IT certification that will help you land that new position or advance in your current one.
You can view the whole Computer World article here for more information.
-Matt