Report: Specialized Skill Shortages to Swell IT Salaries

Driving up salaries for workers with the right mix of specialized skills, technology-based industries are expect to continue to face shortages of talent this year, and VARs could be hardest hit, according to market analysis released Jan. 3 by Philadelphia-based Yoh, a provider of outsourcing services. Yoh predicts that the tightest candidate markets will be […]

Written By: Deborah Rothberg
Jan 3, 2007
Channel Insider content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Driving up salaries for workers with the right mix of specialized skills, technology-based industries are expect to continue to face shortages of talent this year, and VARs could be hardest hit, according to market analysis released Jan. 3 by Philadelphia-based Yoh, a provider of outsourcing services.

Yoh predicts that the tightest candidate markets will be found among workers with specialized technical skills and specific domain and industry experience. This is expected to be strongest among the technology services and device manufacturers in the hardware space, as well as clinical research and R&D development in the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech spaces.

R&D and software development are expected to have talent bases falling short of companies’ needs. Demand in the R&D space will include clinical research associates, biostaticians, firmware and hardware engineers. Demand in the software development area will include Business Objects, Java, MS developers, SAS programmers and systems architects.

Yoh also suggests that a steady stream of upgrades by ERP vendors, as well as continued adoption of SOA platforms, is creating a need for Oracle and SAP consultants as well as experienced database administrators.

VARs could be significantly impacted as they struggle for talent with larger IT employers able to drive large salaries, according to employment sources.

“The VAR market will be impacted in two primary ways: product development talent is becoming more specialized and will likely become more scarce over time,” said Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing at Yoh. “The other is that as general technology talent wages rise, wages in all job categories will also increase.”

The report sorts employer demand for specific tech skills by major U.S. technology hubs. In Silicon Valley the demand is strongest among firmware engineers, ASIC design engineers and embedded engineers. Seattle has a shortage of software developer engineers, hardware/firmware engineers and clinical data mangers. And in Austin, Dallas and Houston, companies are looking for .NET, C# developers, Java/J2EE architects and developers and SQL database administrators.

“The technology market continues to grow, which keeps pushing wages up,” says Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing at Yoh. “Hiring managers are continuing to look for specialized talent to help them keep up with maturing technology. For example, a candidate with .Net developer skills and pharmaceutical experience is far more engaging to a hiring manager than a candidate with the skills but not the market expertise or experience.”

A trend is also seen towards reaching beyond geographic boundaries for talent, no longer insisting the technology consultants be on site.

Check out eWEEK.com’s for the latest news, reviews and analysis on IT management from CIOInsight.com.

Recommended for you...

Concentric AI Adds Integrations to Data Governance Platform

Concentric AI adds Wiz, Salesforce, and GitHub integrations to boost Semantic Intelligence platform’s AI-driven data governance and security capabilities.

Jordan Smith
Aug 15, 2025
Brivo Launching New Solution to Boost Security Suite

Brivo and Envoy partner to unify access control & visitor management, delivering scalable, compliant, and secure workplace experiences.

Jordan Smith
Aug 13, 2025
GitHub CEO Steps Down as Microsoft Tightens AI Integration

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke to step down in 2025 as Microsoft moves platform into CoreAI, deepening its role in the company’s AI development strategy.

Allison Francis
Aug 13, 2025
Backblaze CEO on GTM Strategy & AI Demand on M&E Datasets

Backblaze CEO on record growth, AI and M&E wins, and how new products and partnerships are driving enterprise cloud storage adoption.

Jordan Smith
Aug 13, 2025
Channel Insider Logo

Channel Insider combines news and technology recommendations to keep channel partners, value-added resellers, IT solution providers, MSPs, and SaaS providers informed on the changing IT landscape. These resources provide product comparisons, in-depth analysis of vendors, and interviews with subject matter experts to provide vendors with critical information for their operations.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.