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By Natasha Lomas, 24 November 2009 12:27

NEWS

In the main IT industry wages look to be weathering the economic storm, according to this year's silicon.com Skills Survey, but there are signs that first-time tech workers are taking a hit.

The research shows that fewer tech workers are on the lowest rung of the pay ladder compared to last year, while the proportion taking home larger salaries is up on 2008.

Less than a fifth (16 per cent) of tech workers report taking home a salary of under £25k this year, compared to more than a fifth (22 per cent) who did so in 2008.

The average graduate salary for computer science grads last year was just over £21k, according to a Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu) report published earlier this month, while the starting salary for information systems and software engineering grads was just over £20k.

The number of vacancies offered by the top graduate recruiters has fallen more than predicted in the past year, the Hecsu report notes.

The report, entitled What Do Graduates Do?, states that unemployment rates for IT grads rose by 4.2 percentage points to 13.7 per cent last year. While the percentage of IT graduates entering employment dropped from 68.1 per cent in 2007 to 63.6 per cent in 2008. In addition, it notes that a survey of graduate recruiters published by the Association of Graduate Recruiters earlier this year found the number of IT graduate vacancies available last year shrank by up to 44.5 per cent.

But while recruitment freezes could be helping to prop up IT industry wage levels above £25k, as fewer grads get jobs in tech, the good news for existing IT workers is that the freeze has not necessarily extended to their pay packets.

Just over a quarter of IT pros responding to the silicon.com Skills Survey reported taking home an annual pay packet of between £25,001k and £40k this year, while just over a fifth (22 per cent) said they pocket £40,001 to £55k. Meanwhile, 17 per cent of techies claimed to earn between £55,001 and £70k - which is up five percentage points on last year.

The peak of the IT pay scale is also apparently unscathed by the recession, with the proportion taking home the most bacon rising marginally on last year. Almost a fifth (19 per cent) of this year's respondents reported taking home more than £70,001, compared to 18 per cent who did so in 2008.