IT contractors get a salary reboot

Are you a commitment-phobe and an IT in finance specialist to boot? Now could be the time to hit the financial services contract market.

Stuart Allen of Adaps IT Recruitment says contract IT roles with major banks have jumped 10% in the last few months alone and payís up a similar amount.

Staff shortages are at the root of the rise. ìWhereas the banks in the past wouldnít negotiate, theyíre starting to really feel the bite at the moment with the skills shortage,î Allen tells eFinancialCareers.

ìWeíre putting forward candidates to the big banks and some of them have three or four job opportunities available at the same time, so itís really competitive.î

Where a reasonable project manager might have been receiving AU$800 a day earlier this year, the equivalent role is now seeing AU$900 a day. At the top end of the market, banks are paying AU$1.2k to AU$1.3k a day on large projects, particularly those that involve business analysts helping investment banks upgrade trading systems.

But Matt Cargill of Hamilton James & Bruce says financial institutions are paying more to try and build their permanent IT ranks.

ìWhen the banks get a good IT person they try to lock them into a permanent role rather than a contract. Thatís just the nature of the IT market and I think itís pretty much across the board.î