IT hiring and salaries are down
According to the latest salary survey from Janco Associates, salaries and demand for IT professionals is down. Here are the more interesting results of the survey. — I have some bad news, and I have some bad news. According to Mid Year 2009 Salary Survey …
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2009 hiring picture had already weakened from January’s mixed IT jobs outlook to June’s assessment that the market was not getting better. Janco Associates’ midyear survey adds a compensation measure to that labor-market deterioration.
The result also echoes an earlier discussion of skimpy IT raises, but with demand as well as pay under pressure—making this a broader reset of IT workers’ bargaining position rather than a raises-only issue.
First-order effects
- IT professionals face reduced leverage in salary negotiations as Janco Associates reports declines in both demand and pay.
- Organizations hiring IT staff can set compensation against a softer candidate market, rather than competing primarily through higher offers.
Second-order effects
- Recruiters and staffing firms must contend with fewer or lower-paid IT openings when employers restrain both headcount demand and salary budgets.
- IT employers able to keep hiring gain more choice among candidates, shifting competition from wage escalation toward role selectivity.
Third-order effects
- If employers sustain simultaneous cuts to hiring demand and compensation, IT labor becomes more tightly tied to broader business-budget cycles than to a presumed shortage of technical talent.
The trend: The 2009 data point to a technology labor market in which weakening employer demand is flowing directly into salary restraint and reduced worker bargaining power.