Has the IT skills crisis turned a corner?

Has the IT skills crisis turned a corner? Results from the 10th annual silicon.com Skills Survey show a decline in the number of unfilled IT vacancies for the first time in years, suggesting the skills crisis may have softened - at least for the moment.

Over the past few years, the percentage of respondents reporting unfilled IT jobs has been rising steadily. In 2003 it stood at less than a fifth (14 per cent); rising to more than a fifth (22 per cent) in 2004; around a third (34 per cent) in 2005; over a third (37 per cent) in 2006; and 45 per cent last year.

But 40 per cent of respondents to the exclusive 2008 survey said they have empty IT seats: a drop of five percentage points since 2007.

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This year's survey also reveals a slight decline in the percentage of respondents who believe there is an IT skills shortage - reinforcing the idea IT recruitment is not as tough as it has been. Close to half (46 per cent) of respondents agree or strongly agree there is a skills crisis, slightly down on last year's result (48 per cent).

The question of whether there is a UK IT skills crisis or not perennially invites debate - with some silicon.com readers expressing a belief ageist hiring policies have merely created a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to tech skills.

Whatever the reality, IT sector skills body e-skills UK has predicted 140,000 extra IT and telecoms recruits will be needed annually to keep up with industry demand - yet the number of UK students choosing to study computer science continues to decline so it seems certain the industry is going to have to get increasingly smart about how it recruits, sources and trains new workers.

Mobile skills are one potential future shortage flagged up by this year's survey - well over a third (40 per cent) of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that it is easy to find workers with strong mobile device skills, even with mobility rising up many a corporate agenda.

For the sixth year running, the IT skills in shortest supply are programming languages (C variants, Java, Vb, HTML, XML etc); followed by web services/SOA (.Net, J2EE etc); and IT management (systems, storage, network), the survey found.

As with previous years, the non-technical skills in shortest supply are project management, followed by leadership and sector knowledge.

While the vast majority of respondents (72 per cent) believe both business and technical skills are equally important to success in IT - a view which has been increasing its majority since the question was first posed back in 2006 - this year the minority view is skewed slightly in favour of technical skills (17 per cent to 11 per cent).

However, asked to rate the statement 'business skills are key to succeeding in IT today' just seven per cent of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed - suggesting there is widespread understanding the techie of today must have soft skills too.

The 2008 Skills Survey results are based on responses from 711 individuals, most of whom reside in the UK.