IT professionals switch jobs on average every three years, with more than half jumping the joint within this time.

According to an annual pay survey, from New Jersey-based People3, a Gartner sub, the way to the hearts of Tech staff is not solely through their pay packets (Yeah, Right).

Training; giving workers the use of new technologies; a challenging technical environment - these are more effective for staff retention than shelling out higher salaries.

Of the 104 IT jobs analysed for the survey, the vacancies that companies took the longest to fill were network architect (4.2 months) and database administrator (3.7 months).

Oh. The "workload of the IT function" will increase 50 per cent by 2005, making staff retention ever more important, according to People 3. Does this mean that employees are expected to work 50 per cent harder/longer/more efficiently - or that companies will need 50 per cent more IT staff? Who can say, although we're betting on the former.

The median base salary for US IT staff in 2001 is
$62,100 (1.8 per cent up on last year), while median total cash compensation was $64,200, according to People3. Other surveys suggest that US IT salaries have actually dropped this year. ®

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