Confirmation of the recovery

My own regular skimming of the IT job adverts convinced me, around the turn of the year,  that the recovery was well under way. Recruitment of planning staff takes place before the hiring of operatives, and is only carried out when organisations are sure that their investment will pay off. Now, there is official confirmation, courtesy of silicon.com:

Two reports out this week indicate that employers are finding it harder to hire the skilled tech workers they need as recruitment begins to return to pre-recession levels.

Matthew Iveson, director at IT recruitment specialist CV Screen, said in a statement that "the employer-driven market of a year ago is now shifting towards a candidate-driven market, which is driving up salaries".

Salaries paid to IT workers in permanent positions have increased by five per cent over the past 12 months, according to the CV Screen report.

In a separate survey, professional services firm KPMG found that overall job vacancies have reached their highest point since April last year, with competition for quality candidates increasing, particularly in the IT sector. CV Screen also reported that the number of advertised IT jobs has increased by over 25 per cent.

While the KPMG report said private sector job creation is not yet sufficient to absorb overall job losses from the public sector, CV Screen reported that in the tech industry the number of applications per role has fallen by 20 per cent. These findings support a further study by industry body e-skills UK, which reported that there were more vacancies than applicants in the IT sector.

Iveson commented that the increase in demand for skilled tech workers can be partly attributed to the economic recovery. "Rather than cutting back on staff, we are now seeing employers looking to grow the size of their workforce and having to offer more competitive salaries to secure the best talent," he said.

What worries me is that Wales may not have produced enough young people with the necessary skills to take advantage of this upturn.