US labour studies suggest that IT workers there could fare better during the recession than many other occupational groups.
Forecasts made by Computer Economics show that businesses have planned a median pay raise for IT workers this year of 3%. That increase would represent growth in real terms, once declining energy prices and potential deflation are taken into account.
The analysts caution there is good reason to suspect actual pay raises will be somewhat lower than planned levels though, and have projected median wage growth of 2% for 2009.
Computer Economics also expects relative stability in the IT labour market. “While few organisations were planning to add staff, fewer still were planning layoffs” it said of the findings of its last fourth-quarter survey.
The Computer Economics 2009 IT Salary Report is based, in part, on actual base salaries paid to IT workers, as well as their plans for raising salaries in 2009. Official historical data and the analyst’s own databases were then used to feed a model to project salary estimates into 2009.
