By Marcia Heroux Pounds, Sun Sentinel
Full Story: www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-south-florida-tech-jobs-20120417,0,5385528.story
April 17, 2012
Technology professionals are in the driver’s seat again when it comes to jobs and salaries, a new survey indicates.
South Florida employers are concerned about losing their employees with tech skills, according to a new survey of more than 1,000 tri-county technology workers by ProTech, a Boca Raton staffing company.
For tech workers, salary is the top motivator, said Deborah Vazquez, chief executive of ProTech. “We’re in a market now where candidates have multiple job offers,” she said.
Employees received an average 2011 pay increase of 3.5 percent, up from the 2 percent they received in 2010, according to the survey.
Forty-six percent of technology professionals say they have “seriously considered” moving out of Florida, down from 55 percent in 2011, according to ProTech’s survey.
Vazquez said employers are hiring to update their websites and develop projects they have had on the back burner during the recession. Forty-two percent of technology companies said they plan to increase staff this year, up from 13 percent in 2011.
The best perks are flextime and telecommuting, according to workers who responded to the survey.
Gary Henning, Florida district president for staffing firm Robert Half International, said the demand for IT workers is increasing salaries, both for new and existing employees. Employers are recognizing they “better bring their salaries up or people are going to entertain other offers,” he said.
Tech workers also want to be involved in work that is “cutting edge,” he said.
Programmers, security analysts and administrators who maintain company databases are in high demand, the staffing firms say.
mpounds@tribune.com, 56-243-6650
Here are average annual salaries for selected technology jobs in South Florida, according to ProTech:
Database administrator: $101,250
Web developer: $90,000
Security analyst: $80,500
Help desk manager: $92,500
Copyright © 2012, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
