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Demand for tech workers hits six-year high
But more people are looking for a new job…

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Tuesday 08 January 2008

The demand for IT and communications workers in the UK is at its highest level since the end of 2001.

There was also a rise in employed workers looking for new jobs - up to 59,000 - according to the latest quarterly IT and comms sector group report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Skills Survey 2007

Find out the exclusive results of this year's silicon.com Skills Survey:

♦  Are CIOs getting less cash?
♦  How the staffing crisis is deepening
♦  How techie salaries are faring
♦  Offshoring still a hot potato
♦  Banks hardest hit by staff crisis
♦  Industry falling out of love with IT grads

The third quarter of 2007 also showed a decrease in average salaries, although the long term trend remains positive according to the REC, with the average wage having risen by around £100 per week compared to 2001.

During the third quarter of last year around one million IT staff were in work in the UK - slightly less than in the previous three quarters but still the fifth highest quarterly level in the past five years.

The REC predicts systems administrators and technical sales support staff, as well as people trained in SQL-sever and Javascript, will be the most in demand and hardest roles to fill.

Hot skills during 2007 that were increasingly listed as requirements in permanent job adverts included expertise in the programming language C#, SQL Server and Tibco products.