The largest increases in base compensation are expected in high-demand segments such as applications and web development, network management, and database administration.

This healthy increase is due to a talent crunch in the IT industry. The demand for talented technology professionals is higher than it's been in five years according to a new study published in CIO magazine.

Scarcity of Technology Talent

This scarcity of technology talent is caused by various factors. College students are steering away from IT careers, perhaps scared by headlines about outsourcing; the number of freshman planning on majoring in computer science plunged by 70 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to a UCLA study.

At the same time, the IT industry is expanding. The Bureau of Labor forecasts that 1 million new IT jobs will be created between 2004 and 2014. In fact, that number zooms to 1.3 million new jobs when you add the retirements of aging Baby Boomers.

Industries forecasting particularly strong demand for IT professionals in 2008 include financial services, healthcare and commercial construction.

Companies Offering Additional Perks

Many companies are raising base compensation for new hires and offering additional perks, including signing bonuses and equity incentives, to recruit and retain top candidates.

According to the salary study, lead applications developers, who manage software development teams and projects, will see the greatest starting salary gains of any job classification in 2008, with base compensation expected to rise 7.6 percent, to between $80,250 and $108,000 annually.

Base compensation for applications architects is projected to increase 7.5 percent, to a range of $87,250 to $120,000. Messaging administrators should see starting salaries increase 7.1 percent, bringing them to the range of $55,000 to $77,750 annually.

"Messaging administrators are the air traffic controllers of the vast amount of information passed among e-mail systems, corporate networks and, increasingly, hand-held devices like BlackBerrys," says an IT staffing specialist quoted by CIO. "These professionals are in high demand as companies aim to keep their employees, clients and customers connected."

Other Key Findings

Other key findings in the study include:

Data modelers can expect base compensation in the range of $74,250 to $102,000, a gain of 7 percent over 2007.

Network managers also will see average starting salaries rise 7 percent, to the range of $74,500 to $98,500 per year.

Base compensation for senior IT auditors will increase 6.9 percent, with starting salaries of $86,750 to $114,750 annually, on average.

Average starting salaries for business intelligence analysts will rise 6.6 percent, to the range of $78,250 to $108,250 annually.

Nicole Hardin is Managing Director, Recruitment Services of HireStrategy. HireStrategy provides consulting services and executive search solutions in the technology, sales, human resources and accounting professions. HireStrategy, an Inc. 500 company, is ranked by The Washington Business Journal as the #1 staffing firm in the Greater Washington area, and recognized by Washingtonian magazine as one of Washington's "Great Places to Work."