Communications of the ACM
For Big Raises in It, Look to Mobile, Security, Big Data
Credit: Nashville Originals
IT salaries will remain mostly unchanged in 2015, except for workers with highly coveted skill sets in areas such as security, big data, and mobility. Smaller raises, however, don't mean falling demand for IT workers, as technology hiring through 2022 looks robust. A salary report created by IT staffing firm Modis cites U.S. government statistics in predicting an 18 percent annual growth rate in technology jobs and the creation of 685,000 technology jobs over the next eight years. By comparison, the growth rate for all other industries is projected at 10.8 percent. The salary data shows that companies will give raises between 3 percent and 18 percent in 2015, depending on the person's skill level and the company's size and location.
IT security jobs have the highest projected growth rate, according to the report. By 2022, there will be a 37 increase in jobs in that field. The average base pay for security positions ranges from U.S. $74,917 for a security administrator to $115,415 for a data security manager. Companies are especially concerned about securing mobile devices as more employees use personal tablets and smart phones for work tasks, so mobile security backgrounds will command higher salaries. Skills demand doesn't necessarily translate into higher salaries. For example, the need for programming skills will increase by 20 percent over the next eight years, yet, the salaries would probably be more consistent to what they are today. The report lists $66,000 as the average salary for a Web developer, going up to as high as $85,000.
One market with both strong growth potential and compensation is health IT, which has a projected value of $56.7 billion by 2017. Jobs in that sector include clinical systems trainer (average base salary of $66,710), HIPAA security analyst ($72,414), and clinical systems architect ($141,371). Other growth markets for IT jobs include the finance sector and small and medium-size businesses. IT jobs with increasing growth rates over the next eight years include project managers (15 percent), systems analysts (25 percent), and software developers (22 percent). Many of those project management and business analyst roles may be filled by women, who are already taking an interest in these positions.
From Computerworld
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