IT staff turnover, recruitment and retention problems and skills shortages have all increased over the past year, according to new research.
The Benchmark of Salaries and Employment Trends for 2006, from not-for-profit group the National Computing Centre (NCC), reveals that the rate of staff turnover over the past 12 months was 12%, a significant increase from 9.4% in 2004.
Perceived shortages for all systems and support staff were slightly up on last year at 5.2%, but more than 25% of the respondents identified specific recruitment or retention skills over the past 12 months, up 5% on last year.
More than four in 10 (41%) respondents expect their IT staff numbers to grow over the next two years, with 41% expecting numbers to remain the same. Last year, more than 50% predicted an increase in IT staff numbers.
The average rate of increase in total salary reported in this year’s Benchmark was 3.7%, while the median rate was 3%.
Stefan Foster, managing director of NCC Membership Services, said: “Last year’s Benchmark reported an upturn in most IT labour market variables and in the short term it would appear that this situation is continuing. The only indicator that has fallen since last year is respondents’ expectations of future IT staff requirements.
“It looks like the dust will begin to settle on the labour market by next summer, but watch out, with certain skills such as internet and intranet development, demand will be high, so put your recruitment plans together now – or risk a fight for skilled staff later in the year,” he added.
The NCC analysis is based on an aggregation of the responses from 383 organisations, which provided salary and employment details for 9,346 staff.
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