Salary Survey: Dot-com bubble was a cake walk compared to current job market

January 6, 2009 — 1:53pm ET | By Paul Mah

Tools

Tags
IT staff
salaries
Layoffs
Database Manager
Management Consultant
Database Specialist

A bi-annual IT salary survey paints a gloomy outlook for IT professionals. Management consultant, Janco Associates says current conditions are create "a perfect storm," where unfavorable factors are working in tandem to depress hiring demand to its lowest level in the 15 years since the salary survey began.

Company closures, layoffs, cost cutting, outsourcing, and retirees returning to work have created a massive surplus of IT talent with few companies hiring. In a prepared statement, Janco Associates chief executive Victor Janulaitis said, "The dot-com bubble was a cake walk compared to this job market."

Just how low is the demand? The mean salary across all mid-sized enterprise IT positions has dropped 2.91 percent to $73,607. Where large enterprises are concerned, IT staff wages have dropped 0.89 percent to $65,956. Mean salary across all IT positions is down 1.2 per cent to $81,128.

On the bright side, there are positions that still command a high level of demand. These include database managers, Internet systems managers, database specialists and systems programmers. Perhaps workers who have been laid off can consider taking classes in order to retrain themselves in the areas of demand.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at the Register
- check out the summary of the salary survey