The 2012 Mid-Year Salary Survey, just released by
The survey shows that hiring and salaries are soft for most IT positions and most North American metropolitan areas.
“Our main conclusion from analysis of the data and interviews of CIOs is that for information technology the recession has not bottomed and that hiring of IT professionals will remain soft for the next several months,” said CEO of Janco, Victor Janulaitis. “However there still are a number of companies who will proceed to expand IT departments in anticipation of the start of a strong recovery in the first and second quarters of 2013.”
Janco’s analysis showed that in the first quarter of 2012 hiring did pick-up in the IT job market. However, late in that quarter poor economic news from Europe, an uncertain political climate in the United States, and continued high unemployment led many CFOs, and the CIOs who report to them, to re-evaluate their IT expansion plans. Non-critical projects were placed on hold again and additional staffing that was not already on board was curtailed.
“This not an unusual occurrence as companies continue to look ahead and see an uncertain future do not want to commit capital or raise infrastructure costs when they are not sure that they will have a good ROI,” Janco wrote. Janulaitis added that while “cost control continues to be the focus of most CIOs and IT departments, we have seen an increase in the number of part-timers and contractors who are focused on particular critical projects. This is strong indicator that IT hiring and salaries will go up in the next several months.”
Janco’s 12-month compensation comparisons show that mean compensation (including bonuses) for all IT executive positions in large enterprises surveyed is $140,515, a slight decrease from $140,879 in late 2011; for mid-size enterprises the rate is $124,967, a slight increase from $124,363 in 2011.
Overall compensation for all IT professionals has increased from $77,229 to $78,759; the study also shows that there was a five-percent increase in the number of employees receiving personal performance bonuses while there was four-percent increase in those receiving enterprise-based performance bonuses. Janulaitis said, “Bonuses are a leading indicator that companies are looking for enterprise revenue improvements and want to motivate employees to focus on improving the company’s bottom line over and above everything else.”
