Since the 2003/ 2004 recession the I.T. market has continued to improve. While the number of jobs being outsourced and off shored hasn’t slowed the total number of I.T. jobs in the U.S. has increased by 5% since then and things are continuing to improve.

The first tangible proof of that is usually increasing salaries. The paradox has been that while unemployment dropped and opportunities became far more plentiful, salaries didn’t increase much between ‘04 and ‘06. Companies to all of our disappointment, interviewed and made hiring decisions as if they were still in 2004 (we’ve written plenty of blogs on that topic).

However, according to Information Week’s article "The Six-Figure Club" 2007 saw the first tangible evidence of real movement in base salaries; 5.7% for I.T. staffers and 6.6% for Managers (again bolstering my oft blogged argument that management is where you want to be). While this may not be the halcyon days of the late 90’s ( trust me boys and girls those days ain’t coming back) it’s important to put this into perspective as well; the median base pay for 2004/2005/2006 was a mere 1%. 5.7 and 6.6% represent a 500/600% improvement in the amount of yearly increase.

The bad news in this report is that median pay for those entry and junior level staffers has actually fallen. While this sounds impossible, I’m here to tell you we are regularly asked to fill positions for Java and .Net Developers (w/ 2-4 yrs of experience) at 50-55K. No, we typically don’t take on the assignment but that’s what these companies are paying. The really troubling news isn’t that overseas competition is what’s behind the lower pay, but if this trend continues it will inevitably mean even fewer college grads getting out with a Computer Science degree, and that inevitably means more jobs will go overseas.

So while there is good news now for experienced IT pros. IT management still needs to understand that they have to pay appropriately for all grade levels because as we all know “you only reap what you sow.”