IT professionals in Singapore can expect salaries to increase by 10-15%

With technology driving many aspects of business, the demand for IT professionals is expected to increase in Singapore. However, with a shortage of IT talent, employers can anticipate paying more to hire such talent.

According to ZW HR Consulting's Singapore IT Salary Guide for 2015/16, Singapore is a "candidate favoured market", currently driven by the over saturation of IT firms and positions, leading to a scramble to find top talent.

Demand is particularly high for mid-level IT professionals, especially for sectors such as banking and financial services, end-user commerce, IT, and consulting.

As a result, based on actual transactions between employers and employees in Singapore, candidates are seen to be receiving a 10% to 15% increase in salaries.

Those with additional in-demand skills such as languages spoken, leadership capabilities, and on-the-job experience can receive up to a 20% growth in salary.

"The average salary ranges for professionals are up by 10–15% for 2015/16 as compared to the 2014/15 figures; hiring is still strong in many areas such as mobile applications, data analytics, business intelligence and cloud computing," said Mervin Chui, MD of ZW HR Consulting Singapore.

"Cyber security professionals and application developers are in demand due to increasing regulations and customers concern for data protection."

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The report highlighted the top 10 IT jobs in demand in 2015/16:

1. Software developers 2. Mobile application developers 3. Database administration 4. Cloud computing 5. Information security/ cyber security 6. Network engineers 7. Helpdesk/ technical support 8. Project managers 9. Web designers/developers 10. Big data

Chief information officers (CIOs) and chief technology officers (CTOs), with more than 15 years of experience, are right at the top of the salary ranges, expected to earn between SG$300,000 to 420,000.

Lower in the order, employers looking for software development managers can expect to pay $108,000 to $144,000 a year for someone with 8 or more years of experience.

Those looking for database managers with 10 or more years of experience can expect to pay $102,000 to $132,000 per year.

Explaining that IT professionals have an advantage in the market right now, Yvonne Tang, director for IT practice at ZW HR Consulting said: "Employers will need to consider increasing salaries to keep pace with inflation in order to retain their high-calibre workforce."

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