Survey results have revealed that IT security and data analytics salaries are to see a growth of eight percent and four percent, respectively, in 2017.
Robert Walters Global Salary Survey for 2017 found that professionals who specialise in data analytics and business intelligence should expect to see a four percent salary growth on average.
This is based on the demand for IT security specialists which has soared to a high growth from the continuation of data leaks, such as the large scale breach which attacked Yahoo in 2016.
The breach, which took two years to discover, led to extreme havoc for public users as it was believed the accounts were stolen from over 500 million users with no evidence during investigation.
A recent study conducted by Indeed jobsite, also revealed that advertised cyber security roles in the UK were the third highest in the world.
Due to the continued issue in supply and demand, employers could be seen to use the increase in salaries as a way to entice people and also shift away from the difficulty of finding skilled staff.
James Murray, Associate Director at Robert Walters said: “A string of high profile data breaches concerning major firms has bought IT security into the foreground as a top priority for senior managers.
“Senior stakeholders are acutely aware of the impact data breaches can have on a company’s image and their finances and as a result they are willing to offer high salaries to top calibre candidates.”
In 2016, it was found that the average starting salaries for professional roles saw an increase of 3.68 percent from 2013, with a further predicted growth of 2.1 percent in technology, finance and other roles in 2017.
Murray added: “senior business leaders are increasingly coming to recognise the pivotal role that data science and analytics can have on cost efficiencies and allowing businesses to grow in a sustainable way.
“Data analytics is seen as an industry agnostic skillset and as a result data analytics professionals have a wide range of job options. This, combined with an increase in investment in data analytics, has driven permanent salaries and contract rates up.”
A previous survey carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research shows that the pivoting growth in data analytics and the Internet of Things sectors is estimated to create 182,000 new jobs by 2020, with data analytics expected to add £241bn to the UK economy by 2020.
From this, research from the Robert Walters Global Salary Survey shows that hiring managers continually looking for junior professionals with the potential to grow into more senior roles to keep salary costs down.
