In The Money

In the last few days, economic news for IT has been pretty much all good - more funding, more jobs, and now, higher salaries on the horizon. A report issued this week by Robert Half Technology predicts that, on average, next year IT salaries will rise 3 percent versus the .5 average they saw this year. The report goes on to forecast that the most sought after will include lead applications developers, network security administrators, and IT auditors.Wait, can you say that again? IT Auditors? Yep, that is right. Thanks in large part to regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA that companies are working to come into compliance with, IT auditors can expect average salary gains of more than 11 percent in 2006. So is that enough to make you rethink your career path?

Well, if not, there is plenty of opportunity across the board in IT. Thanks to an ever-increasing emphasis on using technology as a means to turn a bigger profit, faster, businesses are trying to bulk up their IT resources. And with not nearly enough skilled candidates to meet that demand, the competition for the best is fierce. So there you go, opportunity is knocking.