Pay Trends: Unfriendly But Not Unmitigated

A tough economy hurts pay premiums, but bright spots remain.

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Trees don't grow to the sky, as the old investing saw has it. We've seen that with home prices and stock values. Now IT pay premiums are proving the same point.

The latest results in the IT Skills and Certification Pay Index (ITSCPI) recently released by Foote Partners are bringing back expectations to solid earth.

The market value for non-certified IT skills dipped in the last three months of 2008 by 0.5 percent after four years of steady gains. The slide in premiums paid for IT certifications continued a long-trending descent, dropping 1 percent in the last quarter of 2008 and 5 percent for the year

In spite of this, there do seem to be glimmers of hope for certain specializations as CIOs dial in their operations to increase efficiency and productivity. As David Foote, ITCPI author and principal at Foote Partners, puts it, certain skills are “counter-trending” in the face of across-the-board decreases. These include skills in architecture, process management, security and messaging and communications.