Introduction

While the global economic recession of recent years has largely been replaced by a lethargic recovery, many workers continue to be impacted by job loss, reduction in salary and benefits, or job change. IT professionals have felt the impact of these economic tremors along with the rest of their colleagues. Organizations continue to use computers, networks, and software applications as the primary tools for doing business - in fact many have increased their reliance on IT systems in the face of streamlined staffing - but these organizations are also changing the ways they do business and looking for efficiencies wherever they can find them.

Our annual skills and salary survey, the fourth in partnership between Global Knowledge and TechRepublic, sought to capture the magnitude of these changes. As a result, new questions have been added to yield deeper insight into the factors effecting job satisfaction, the importance of skills development with training delivered across multiple delivery methods, current and expected business conditions by industry, and expected areas of concerns in the year to come.

Over 12,000 IT professionals from around the globe responded to the survey, which was completed online between October 11 to November 19, 2010. Respondents from the United States and Canada accounted for 84 percent of all responses. Complete survey methodology can be found on page 21.

For the third straight year, the stagnant economic environment held salaries in check for the IT profession. The average salary for survey respondents this year was $79,579, down 3.2 percent from the 2010 survey ($82,115). Although average salaries in the industry gave up some ground, it's important to note that they are still eight percent higher than $73,900 recorded in our 2008 study. This trend is consistent with findings from other IT industry studies(1). Current trends affecting IT workers include 1) Changes in the way IT departments are funded and staffed, which has resulted in layoffs and salary and benefits reductions, and 2) Shifting some IT activities to "the cloud," managed services, or offshore outsourcing in order to drive greater efficiency in IT spending.