Even for such skilled workers as database administrators and Java developers, economic weakness is dragging down wages, according to Yoh, a technology placement agency that tracks tech wages.
The Yoh Index of Technology Wages was below 2007 levels in each of the first three months of 2008, after increasing steadily last year. The index hit a low of 110.55 in February 2008, down 2.7% from a year earlier. The index rebounded slightly to 111.58 in March, down from 113.57 in March 2007. In March 2008, the average hourly wage for a temporary tech worker was $31.41, 1% lower than $31.72 a year earlier.
"There is no denying the market`s sluggishness," says Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for Yoh. "The drop in wages this quarter, coupled with April`s negative Bureau of Labor Statistics report on employment, paints a very lackluster picture of the economy.”
He says there are pockets of strength, including demand for specialists in SAP and Oracle software and security and products development, and for software and hardware engineers. “It is our hope that the strength found in these sectors will permeate the weaker sectors of the market and ultimately produce stronger wage growth for the second half of 2008," he says.
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