IT Experts Self-Classifying as ‘Skilled Worker’ In IT Job Board Survey
With no such thing as job security and specialist jobs in short supply, it seems that IT workers are changing their own classifications to ‘skilled worker’, leaving monikers such as ‘senior management’, ‘team leader’, ‘trainee’, ‘manager’ and others far behind.
A third of those surveyed for an IT job board survey of IT job seekers in order to better understand them and what they were looking for found that workers in the IT industry classed themselves as skilled workers without managerial responsibility, while another 25 per cent described themselves as managers, team leaders or supervisors. The next most popular role was senior manager, but this made up less than 10 per cent of those questioned.
Ironically, as the UK has tapped into the Web, IT recruitment has bucked the national trend of steadily rising unemployment. Even with the retail sector in levels seen in the last recession of 2009, the IT jobs boards have not only seen more jobs but more applications. Jobs that involve programming languages such as C, .Net, and Java have been rising steadily and significantly as the months and years have progressed. The most demanded skill seems to be SQL: a database-managing language that has a pervasive range of Internet and website applications.
This acceleration of IT opportunity has also been inspired by the UK’s ubiquitous embrace of the mobile, including IT workers: 45% of the UK’s population now own a smartphone and the UK saw the largest increase in the use of this most modern of mobiles in 2011 according to Google; the search engine that UK citizens have assimilated into their lives with enthusiasm and ease. IT jobs seekers actually reported owning a smartphone in numbers of almost 80% meaning those who are working in the IT sector are more geared up to receive and are expecting an excellent mobile experience. For those looking to recruit top talent, mobile responsiveness on their sites is going to be of paramount importance.
Despite IT job seekers almost downgrading their skills levels, they are moderately good earners with most “skilled workers” also falling in to the £30,000 – £49,000 salary band. With salaries increasing moderately every year, those looking for IT jobs, while classifying themselves mostly as ‘skilled workers’, are enjoying a continued boom. This could be due to the largest sector employing these ‘skilled’ IT workers is media, with their constant advancements and pushing the envelope of what is possible.
Whether you are in IT recruitment or you are looking for a job in IT, this sector is one of the most buoyant to be in, whether full or part time.
The place named as best by respondants to one survey as where to look for IT jobs, CWJobs.co.uk has listings of hundreds of vacancies every day from some of the best, most desirable employers in the UK and globally.
