While IT salaries may still look impressive at a glance, recruiters report that top salaries are only paid to those with the right skills.
Thousands of IT professionals are earning relatively low salaries, and as many as 55% that are looking for work may be currently unemployed.
Specialist IT recruitment firms report that companies are cutting their technology spend and becoming more demanding in their staffing requirements, so narrowing the field for job-seekers.
Affirmative action candidates with a combination of business and IT skills and people with sought-after skills are likely to be snapped up by employers.
Unfortunately, hundreds - possibly thousands - of IT professionals have unwanted or outdated skills, or lack the experience to get work.
Many are regarded as being too old or are not the required affirmative action candidates.
Recruitment companies say anything between 10% and 55% of the candidates on their books are unemployed, while between 10% and 35% have been retrenched.
Many others have returned home from working abroad and are now finding it difficult to secure jobs.
Those candidates who are employed, but are looking for other jobs, list salary, employment security and better working conditions - such as less stress and more challenges - as their top three reasons for wanting to change jobs.
"There`s an oversupply of certain skills in the market, people are battling," says Jo Watt, GM of Softline Recruitment. "I`d estimate that there is probably around 15% to 20% unemployment."
Paracon Recruitment says around 35% of candidates on its books are unemployed, with 20% to 25% of them having been retrenched.
M-Assignments reports a lower unemployed candidate rate of around 10%, but says this is mainly due to the fact that it does "executive searches" rather than attracting candidates through advertising.
The People Business says 40% to 55% of the candidates on its books are unemployed, with around 35% having been retrenched.
Org Geldenhuys, director of Abacus Recruitment, says around 30% of candidates who contact the company looking for work are unemployed at the time. Among these are a large number of white males over the age of 40.
Going rates
On the other hand, recruiters report that good salaries are available for those whose skills are in demand.
Based on the jobs they have on their books, recruiters report salary ranges of R310 000 to R700 000 for CIO/GM information systems positions, R300 000 to R387 000 for systems architects, and R350 000 to R460 000 for IT managers.
Packages of up to R500 000 for SAP professionals and R1 million for IT sales (depending on commission) are also reported. The lowest salaries on offer are for systems administrators, network administrators and software testers, starting at R50 000 and ranging up to R200 000.
Consulting or contracting fees vary widely, with recruiters reporting hourly rates of between R190 and R650 for SAP specialists at the top of the range, and R50 to R150 an hour for Unix skills, at the bottom of the range.
Employers are becoming increasingly selective about the applicants they hire, recruiters note.
They report that increasing numbers of companies are demanding people who have both IT and business skills. Financial skills and experience are also sought-after.
Young, highly skilled affirmative action candidates are top of the wish-list for most employers, they say.
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