The shortage of IT skills in the UK is at its most pronounced in ten years, according to a report by IT management advisor the National Computing Centre (NCC).

The NCC’s Benchmark of IT Salaries and Employment Trends in IT report, which polled 244 organisations, found that the proportion of respondents who thought there was an IT skills shortage at a national level has reached 6.8% this year. This is up from 4.2% last year and is the highest figure in ten years.

The proportion of respondent organisations that reported both recruitment and employee retention issues in the IT department was 40% in this year’s survey, compared to just 29% last year. Most organisations said the key issue was recruitment, not retention, and that in order to develop new skills they had to pay to train current employees.

Demand for skills in areas such as Oracle, SAP, and .NET development, web development, network support, business analysis, project management skills and virtualisation skills is expected to rise in the coming months.

“Employers should be planning and budgeting for how best to acquire these skills now,” said the NCC’s head of content, Ian Jones. “It is an unwelcome message but they should be prepared for the extra cost.”

Despite escalating demand, IT salaries grew by just 3.7% on average, the report found – lower than last year’s salary growth and no greater than the national average. Managers, however, did enjoy more performance-related bonuses this year.

Further reading

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Risky business What does the future hold for the UK’s IT professionals – from the trainee to the CIO – in a global economy?