Making hay...

Good news for web developers... IT professionals with website-building skills are commanding soaring rates of pay as advertising budgets migrate online, a study by the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSC) says.

Developers who work with web technologies including Java, Enterprise JavaBeans, Microsoft .Net and BEA Weblogic Server have seen their pay rise by an average of 27 per cent over the past year. Your average developer conversant in BEA Weblogic now earns about £50,000 a year, up 30 per cent, from £38,500, 12 months ago, the ATSC found.

The survey is the latest evidence that rival internet companies are scrambling to recruit and retain the sector's brightest talent. Google - whose top guns can expect a lot more than £50,000 - recently introduced transferable stock options in a move designed to incentivise staff.

The ATSC findings will bolster claims that the UK faces a shortfall of skilled workers. They also tally with anecdotal evidence from City IT managers who say that demand for a limited pool of code-writers who can work on financial systems is surging.

According to the ATSC, students shunned courses in webdesign after witnessing the fallout of the dot-com bust of the late 1990s. Those that pressed on are now finding their services valued at a premium by online groups keen to join the "web 2.0" movement, which is characterised by sites with massive online communities who exchange video and audio content.

Alex Charles, product director of SkillsMarket, an IT recruitment agency, said demand was also high in business-to-business sector. He said: "Over the last year we have also seen a dramatic transfer in B2B applications to the web. Typical examples include contact management and e-mail systems."

Online advertising spending will exceed £2 billion this year, overtaking the national press, according the Internet Advertising Bureau.

Comments

[Alistair Toomey. Anderson Toomey Limited]

Its great that developers with the right skills mix are making good money. However, one unfortunate knock-on effect is that it makes it increasingly difficult for start-up and young software companies to compete on wages with the bigger players in the industry.