IT recruitment agency predicting salary rises during economic downturn

Rethink recruitment agency have been talking to their customers and have learned that the majority of them will be increasing their IT staff rather than decreasing.  In addition to this they predict that IT salaries will be rising over the next year.

The reason is a simple supply and demand issue.  The demand is increasing whilst supply is decreasing resulting in their price, in this case salary, is going up.  IT is a key success factor to most businesses in the modern economy, and indeed IT efficiency is high on the agenda of companies trying to find ways of surviving in their ailing markets, consequently demand is high and rising.

The supply of It workers has been hit from all angles.  There are less and less IT graduates every year going back to the turn of the century.  It would seem that the boom and then bust nature of It has put many from entering IT degrees with numbers halving since 2001.  In addition, overseas outsourcing of It workers has meant that entry level jobs are relatively scarce making it  a difficult industry to get into.

If you are a recruitment agency in IT, it looks like opportunity knocks, an increased need for heads along with rising salaries means more and bigger fees.