Asia Has IT Jobs Galore

Asia's IT industry continues to see upside potential, with rising wages fueled by a shortage of IT professionals.

According to human resources agency Hudson, the sentiment is generally good for IT professionals in this region.

Yeo Gek Cheng, director of IT and telecoms (IT&T) at Hudson Singapore, said there are more jobs for candidates in Singapore as demand far exceeds supply.

Similarly in Hong Kong, the IT job market is short of candidates--almost like how it was in 2000 during the dotcom days, according to Ellis Seder, IT&T manager at Hudson Hong Kong. "The banking industry, in particular, is experiencing a hiring frenzy for candidates with technology skills," he said.

Indeed, the HR experts' views dovetailed with findings from ZDNet Asia's inaugural IT Salary Survey, which provides an overview of salary data for several IT positions, including IT management, project development and systems development. It also highlights the most popular technical skills and professional certifications.

The survey was conducted on the Internet between Aug. 25 and Nov. 6, 2006, and drew 5,090 respondents from key industry sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance. The study covered Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Among the key findings: IT professionals command the highest pay in Hong Kong, with an overall average annual salary of HK$404,144 (US$51,964), followed by Singapore at S$64,943 (US$41,601). Surprisingly, Thailand is in third place with an average of THB 994,203 (US$27,044).

Industry observers say the high salaries are hardly surprising, thanks to a shrinking IT workforce and expanding IT teams.

Rohit Chattree, director at HR consultancy Adecco, noted: "We are getting a lot more requests from clients to look for more candidates, as they expand their IT teams. We're also speaking to a lot of candidates who get offers regularly."

Particularly in Singapore, Chattree said, the local IT talent pool has dried up. Employers are even open to talking to IT professionals looking for jobs while they are in Singapore on tourist visits.

Noting trends across the region, Chattree said: "There is strong interest from different industries to hire IT professionals".

Among the industries surveyed, respondents from the legal and finance sector command the highest average annual salaries in four out of the seven countries: Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

In India, however, the highest IT salaries are in the IT, Web and telecoms sectors with an annual average salary of US$15,259, compared to those in legal and finance who earn an annual average of US$11,647.

Chattree noted that while India is facing wage inflation, the IT sector is already moving up the value chain to stay competitive.

"If IT organizations want to continue to benefit from India's cost advantage, they'll have to bring in work that involves higher-end resources," he said.

More IT managers are thus needed to supervise sophisticated high-level IT projects. However, this group of IT professionals are lacking across Asia.

"The areas that will face shortages are IT management and industry-specific skills such as knowledge of the financial industry," Chattree said. "This is because not enough people are scaling up."

"If people who are moving toward project management do not take the necessary certification, they may face stagnation," he noted.

Age is also an issue, because project managers are usually expected to have many years of experience. Chattree noted: "A young chap at the age of 30 wouldn't be taken very seriously when it comes to project management roles. But by the time they've gained enough experience, they may no longer be keen to do IT."

Not surprisingly, the IT management group command the highest average annual salaries in all countries in ZDNet Asia's IT salary survey. The average annual salary for this group over country salary averages range from 43 percent in Indonesia and Thailand, to 94 percent in India.

Chattree also pointed out the importance of certification in boosting one's credentials for an IT job. "Even if you have good credentials from working for some very good brand name companies, some hiring managers will still want the applications to be [supported] by important certification companies," he said.

The top certifications held by IT professionals across Asia are from the likes of big-name vendors including Cisco Systems, Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems, according to the IT salary survey. Vendor-neutral Project Management (PMP) certification also stood out among the top five certifications.

According to Hudson's Yeo, technical roles in Singapore usually require the relevant certifications, and candidates need to constantly upgrade themselves. "As for other roles in IT sales and marketing, there is no professional certification required," she said.

Hudson Seder noted that in Hong Kong, "professional certifications certainly help but the ability to communicate to the business is more important in the job market today."

He added: "Project Management methodology certifications such as PMP and Six Sigma are beneficial and can definitely demand higher salaries."

Asked if there is a mismatch in terms of the skills possessed by IT job applications and what employers are looking out for, Yeo said: "The IT industry is such that it will always see an influx of new and advanced technologies."

"The Singapore market does not always have a readily available and skilled pool of candidates for these newer areas," she noted. "In such cases, employers need to cast a wider net to other markets to look for the candidates they need."

This mismatch of demand and supply is also seen in Hong Kong. Seder noted: "This is very much the nature of the IT employment market."

With CIOs looking at how they can implement the latest technologies to maintain business competitiveness, Seder added, they will always be looking for new skills that might not exist yet in Asia.

Those looking to carve out a career in IT should rest easy as "IT will always be a well-paid industry due to the lack of skill set in the market, especially for new skills," Seder said.