According to the agency body ATSCo, web developers, who defined the first dot com era, but saw demand for their skills decline after the late 90s downturn, are now among the most sought-after IT professionals in the UK. The average hourly rate for web developers is £29, up from £23 this time last year.

A spate of recent high profile Web 2.0 acquisitions has further cemented pay rises for professionals skilled in Web technologies. Google bought YouTube for £883m and CBS acquired social music site Last FM for £140m – all within the last 12 months.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive, ATSCo, said: “The proliferation of social networking sites, and the increasing amount of time people are spending online, has lead to a boom in demand for online content from advertisers looking to target these audiences.

“Websites now offer a potentially much more sophisticated user experience than the plain text sites around in the 90s. It was relatively easy to publish a decent website back then, but now it’s difficult without expert programming skills.”

Undersupply
According to ATSCo, with fewer IT graduates acquiring web skills after the dot com crash, there is currently an undersupply of web developers on the market. As a consequence, rates are likely to continue their upward trend.

Dotcom companies looking to upgrade their services are now locked in a bidding war for key web skills.

Ann Swain said: “Companies are being forced to offer large incentives to get people onboard because with so few skilled IT graduates entering the marketplace, poaching from rivals is becoming a necessity. But employees in these companies have seen their share options become hugely valuable and will only move for big money increases."

Alex Charles, Founder and Product Director of SkillsMarket, added: “It’s not just consumer websites that are fuelling the demand for these skills. Over the last year we have also seen a dramatic transfer in b2b applications to the web. This has been the result of new technologies such as AJAX, which has enabled functionally rich applications to be moved online. Typical examples include contact management and email systems.”

Retailers
ATSCo said that retailers are upgrading their e-commerce capabilities – filtering through to higher pay for web developers - as potential returns on investment improve.

IT spending by UK retailers is currently outpacing IT investment by all other sectors of the economy, with companies such as Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser and Debenhams all investing heavily in new and improved e-commerce platforms during the past 12 months.

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Susie Hughes
The Editor © AgencyEye 2007