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In a recent survey, iProfileStats, a statistics website for IT contractors, found that whilst project management skills continue to rank as some of the highest paid skills in the IT market they have also experienced some of the biggest falls in value.
The site claims that since April, contractors have seen the value of their skills drop by 31 per cent for Project Management, 29 per cent for MS Project 2000, nine per cent for Project Manager Workbench and five per cent for Case Tools. This was reflected in permanent roles as well with MS Project 2000 falling by 38 per cent and Project Manager Workbench by 23 per cent.
Alex Charles, Director of iProfilestats, said: "Project management skills suffer particularly badly in a downturn. Unlike operational skills, which are always required, project managers tend to be used heavily during new implementations and most large companies are simply holding back on new projects. The flip side is that they will be the first skills to pick up in demand as the market improves. Even when the market does recover, there will be a delayed reaction in rate increase as excess skills are soaked up. Current evidence suggests we may not have hit the bottom yet."
Michael Bennett, Director of the Best International recruitment agency, said: "Generally, we have seen the market grow from the first quarter to the second quarter by about 25 per cent in our permanent recruitment practices. However, this was in a depressed market where activity levels were much lower than two years ago. We anticipate further slow growth, unless the UK economy fares poorly and we see a double dip recession in the US.
"Project management skills have not seen any growth outside of this pattern. Most organisations have held technology spend and not released projects- consequently there are many good Project Managers available, both for the permanent and contract market, who are awaiting budgets to be released for new business projects. I do not anticipate significant growth for these skills until 2003, except in the public sector."
Nigel Lawrence, Sales Director of Haymarket Consulting, added: "In spite of companies still having to holding off on new projects we're finding that there continues to be a strong requirement for good project managers. The main difference now is that clients have a much greater choice of experienced project managers, which is great news for the client but frustrating for the project managers who end up missing out.
"As for the drop in rates for project management skills we haven't actually seen any evidence of this but we are finding that companies no longer need to pay the premiums they once did. For example, during the dot.com boom smaller and less well known companies were paying much higher rates in order to attract experienced project managers."
According to iProfileStats, the highest earning skills by hourly contract rate are:
ABAP - £54.00 per hour
SAP - £51.43 per hour
Project Manager Workbench - £51.32 per hour
PeopleSoft - £49.44 per hour
JDE - £49.41 per hour
The highest earning skills by annual salary are:
Project Management - £48,117 per annum
Patrol - £47,500 per annum
Project Manager Workbench - £45,726 per annum
Siebel- £44,138 per annum
Oracle Financials - £43,452 per annum
According to the most recent figures from Jobstats, another statistics site for IT workers, the average rates advertised are: £21 per hour and £36,900 per annum.
(Note: Hourly rates refer to contractors, annual figures to permanent workers)
The five most popular skills:
Management 30.2 per cent - £25 per hour, £41,700 per annum
Support 24.7 per cent - £17 per hour £33,400 per annum
Design 18 per cent - £29 per hour, £38,800 per annum
Analyst 17.9 per cent - £26 per hour, £36,000 per annum
Finance 17 per cent - £32 per hour, £46,100 per annum
The five most popular locations:
London 27.1 per cent - £25 per hour, £44,100 per annum
City 5.8 per cent - £31 per hour, £50,000 per annum
Berkshire 4.2 per cent - £18 per hour, £38,400 per annum
Surrey 4 per cent - £20 per hour, £36,800 per annum
South East 3.3 per cent - £32 per hour, £41,700 per annum
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Richard Powell, © Shout99.com 2002
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