DICE HOLDINGS, INC. 
By IT Workers Say Updating Skills is Top Priority for 2009
The top worries for technology professionals in 2009 are keeping skills up to date (22 percent), job elimination (20 percent), lower salary increases (14 percent), cancelled projects (12 percent) and increased workload due to staff cuts (10 percent). Supporting this theme, Dice reports a 67 percent increase in the number of new resumes posted to its site in the fourth quarter (year over year). Given that the majority of technology professionals who utilize Dice are currently employed, such "passive job hunting" indicates greater anxiety about the job market.
Still, individuals with specific training and capabilities received outsized raises in 2008: for example, Security Analysts saw increases of 8.4 percent, Software Engineers were up 7 percent, and Applications Developers enjoyed 6.6 percent raises.
"That average tech salaries are rising even as the economy falls reveals how much has changed since the dot-com days," said
Additional findings of the survey include:
-- In major technology centers, IT salaries are up 5.8 percent in New York,
3.8 percent in Chicago, 3.6 percent in both Silicon Valley and
Washington, D.C., and just 0.4 percent in Dallas/Fort Worth.
-- By metropolitan area, smaller, less traditional tech markets such as
Charlotte saw the biggest salary increases, up 14.7 percent to $81,426,
followed by St. Louis, up 12.5 percent to $72,819.
-- Topping the compensation/skill set list are workers in the areas of ABAP
- Advanced Business Application Programming ($106,975), ETL - Extract
Transform and Load ($102,364) and Business Intelligence databases
($101,585).
-- Project managers earned, on average, $103,424 in 2008, the highest
earning title outside of top technology executives. Those workers,
often holding CIO and CTO titles, earned an average of $111,998 in 2008.
-- On an industry-by-industry basis, technology professionals in the
Computer Hardware field received average raises of 9.4 percent to
$77,387. Salaries in the Internet Services industry were boosted by 8.8
percent to $77,819. Retail/Mail Order/E-Commerce and Government/Defense
fields were allotted the smallest raises, up 2.4 percent and 3.4
percent, respectively.
-- Women technology professionals, as a group, earned 12% less on average
than men. However, when comparing women IT professionals with their
equivalent male counterpart (controlling for years of experience,
education levels and job titles), the so-called gender gap disappeared.
Dice Salary Survey: Methodology
The Dice Salary Survey was administered online with 19,444 registered Dice job seekers and visitors responding
Table 1: Technology Salaries Previous
Year
2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 % Change
------- ------- ------- ------- --------
U.S. Average $69,700 $73,308 $74,570 $78,035 4.6%
By Industry:
Bank / Financial /
Insurance $76,092 $82,504 $82,961 $87,257 5.2%
Computer Software $74,730 $77,582 $79,756 $84,094 5.4%
Telecommunications $72,430 $78,003 $77,312 $81,006 4.8%
Medical /
Pharmaceutical $71,714 $72,717 $74,689 $79,928 7.0%
Government /
Defense $69,078 $75,086 $77,187 $79,843 3.4%
Manufacturing $66,732 $71,878 $73,470 $77,864 6.0%
Internet Services $65,426 $71,854 $71,538 $77,819 8.8%
Computer Hardware $66,462 $69,987 $70,740 $77,387 9.4%
Retail /
Mail Order /
E-Commerce $55,909 $63,830 $66,782 $68,394 2.4%
By Job Title:
IT Management $102,326 $106,272 $107,830 $111,998 3.9%
Project Manager $93,009 $96,475 $101,292 $103,424 2.1%
MIS Manager $82,824 $82,510 $88,934 $93,318 4.9%
Software Engineer $78,807 $83,524 $84,122 $90,031 7.0%
Database
Administrator $81,301 $85,441 $85,092 $89,742 5.5%
Developer:
Systems $72,732 $78,476 $88,361 $87,211 -1.3%
Security Analyst $74,837 $79,411 $80,052 $86,778 8.4%
Business Analyst $77,158 $82,288 $84,101 $85,933 2.2%
Developer:
Applications $73,636 $78,037 $79,421 $84,672 6.6%
Developer:
Database $73,768 $79,911 $83,163 $84,176 1.2%
Developer:
Client/Server $75,941 $74,602 $78,173 $78,560 0.5%
Programmer/Analyst $65,174 $69,757 $71,623 $74,851 4.5%
Technical Writer $68,125 $73,094 $73,133 $73,762 0.9%
Network Engineer $65,122 $67,202 $68,391 $72,496 6.0%
Systems
Administrator $63,698 $64,917 $66,388 $70,307 5.9%
Metropolitan Area (by largest annual increase):
Charlotte n/a n/a $70,985 $81,426 14.7%
St. Louis n/a n/a $64,715 $72,819 12.5%
Pittsburgh n/a n/a $58,221 $65,135 11.9%
Portland, OR n/a n/a $71,182 $77,801 9.3%
Baltimore $68,161 $70,170 $70,590 $77,079 9.2%
Metropolitan Area (by highest salary*):
Silicon Valley $85,430 $90,310 $93,876 $97,259 3.6%
Washington D.C. $77,064 $81,957 $83,788 $86,841 3.6%
Los Angeles $73,911 $79,583 $81,039 $86,766 7.1%
New York $76,382 $80,006 $80,770 $85,452 5.8%
Boston $79,211 $80,308 $83,465 $84,627 1.4%
Seattle $73,105 $79,787 $79,636 $82,514 3.6%
San Diego $72,163 $79,416 $75,994 $82,302 8.3%
Austin, TX n/a n/a $76,605 $81,833 6.8%
Sacramento $72,355 $75,197 $83,410 $81,193 -2.7%
Denver $74,823 $77,317 $77,846 $80,646 3.6%
Chicago $71,496 $75,154 $76,407 $79,320 3.8%
Philadelphia $71,881 $72,786 $74,442 $78,860 5.9%
Atlanta $73,684 $72,323 $74,822 $78,036 4.3%
Hartford $72,265 $71,796 $73,372 $77,584 5.7%
Phoenix $70,023 $74,976 $71,246 $77,303 8.5%
Dallas/Ft. Worth $71,494 $74,656 $76,560 $76,836 0.4%
Houston $68,358 $71,526 $72,733 $75,199 3.4%
Miami n/a n/a $69,149 $74,448 7.7%
Kansas City n/a n/a $71,149 $73,647 3.5%
Detroit $64,154 $67,080 $67,271 $73,327 9.0%
* Excluding metropolitan areas that were provided under the largest
annual increase designation.
Table 2: Top 10 Average Salaries for Popular Skills and Experience
2008-09
-------
ABAP - Advanced Business Application Programming $106,975
ETL - Extract, Transform & Load $102,364
Business Intelligence $101,585
Informatica $101,337
ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning $99,332
Data Warehouse $99,323
SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol $98,826
Korn Shell $98,517
JBoss $98,111
ITIL - Information Technology Infrastructure Library $97,863
Table 3: For 2009, what is the biggest concern you have about
your career?
Keeping Skills Up-to-Date / Being Valuable to Employer 22%
Position Elimination 20%
Lower Salary Increases / Lower Billing Rates 14%
Cancelled Projects / Fewer Projects 12%
Increased Workload (due to staff cuts) 10%
Increased Outsourcing 7%
Position Relocation 3%
No Concerns at this Time 12%
About Dice
Dice is the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals. With an 18-year track record of meeting the ever-changing needs of technology professionals, companies and recruiters, our specialty focus and exposure to highly skilled professional communities enable employers to reach hard-to-find, experienced and qualified technology and engineering candidates.
Dice Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) is the parent company of Dice, the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals (www.dice.com); eFinancialCareers, the leading global career site network for jobs and career management for investment banking, asset management and securities professionals (www.efinancialcareers.com); ClearanceJobs, the premier secure job board focused exclusively on candidates with active or current U.S. Government security clearances (www.clearancejobs.com); JobsintheMoney, the leading targeted career site for accounting and finance professionals in
For more information:
Dice Holdings, Inc.
Jennifer Bewley, 515-313-2086
jennifer.bewley@dice.com
- or -
Makovsky + Company
David Rosen, 212-508-9690
drosen@makovsky.com
Kona Luseni, 212-508-9684
kluseni@makovsky.com
SOURCE Dice
