UK tech salaries on the rise

The latest quarterly jobs data issued by online tech careers site Dice shows continued increase in pay levels in the UK’s tech sector as cyber-security skills continue to be in high demand.

Third quarter (July to September 2016) job data from the UK technology sector showed an average rise in salaries of 5% compared to 2015. Dice uses data from IT Jobs Watch to create the quarterly tech index on a quarterly basis.

Tech salaries are steadily rising, with the ten most popular permanent tech job titles showing an average 5% year-on-year increase.

Programme Managers command the highest average pay, with permanent roles paying £78,847, 6% up year-on-year, while contractor day rates now at £600 (up 1.5% year-on-year). Security Analysts and Senior Java Developers had the highest year-on-year increase in terms of permanent jobs, with both seeing an 11% increase in annual pay. Elsewhere, PHP Developers also saw an 11% rise, the highest annual increase in a contractor day-rate, receiving an average of £359 per day.

In total, 137,354 tech roles were posted in Q3, with 64% (88,066) permanent and 34% (49,288) contractor roles. Agile Software Development was the most advertised permanent role, (23,803) jobs advertised, with SQL in second place with 17,830 jobs.

The top ten skills in demand for contract roles (by total numbers of jobs advertised) were: Agile Software Development; SQL; Java; JavaScript; HTML; Linux; CSS; Oracle; .NET; and SQL Server. Some 11,786 roles listed for Agile Software Development contractor roles meant a 10% increase on the same quarter in 2015. HTML rose to fifth place from seventh, passing Linux and .NET.

Meanwhile, the top three skills that have seen the biggest year-on-year surge in demand across both the permanent and contract jobs market were Microsoft Azure (81%), cyber security (70%), and DevOps (61%).

Jamie Bowler, Marketing Director at Dice Europe, commented: “Even in these largely uncertain economic times, the tech industry still appears to be robust in the face of many wider challenges. The average salaries of tech professionals across both permanent and contract roles continue to show steady growth on both a quarterly and annual basis, which can only be a good sign from the market. With the government just last week announcing plans to invest £1.9bn in the UK’s cyber-security strategy, coupled with high-profile cases of hacking such as the Tesco Bank outage this week – it is perhaps unsurprising that there is a large boost of demand for cyber-security skills since last year.

“There has however been a noticeable increase in the number of contracts roles in comparison to the rise in the number of permanent positions available, particularly when it comes to the most in-demand skills. If budgets are likely to be tighter going into Q1, it’s only natural that recruiters will take a ‘wait and see’ approach to their hiring plans.”