Tech skills pulling in more pay

Foote Partners has a new report out which shows the pay for certain tech skills has improved in the past 12 months. From what I've seen in the report thepay for non-certified tech skills grew at a 3.8% rate while the pay for certified skills only grew at a 1.3% rate.

Some of the factors that the Foote Partners has looked at are:
1. a return to hiring as teh economy strengthens
2. Concerns about retention of qualified people
3. employers are demanding more industry-specific experience to go with tech skills
4. populartity of offshoring has had mixed results
5. government regulation
6. recent mergers and acquisition activities

Their list of "cooling" non-certified skills are interesting in that it includes Linux and Novell. One of their reasons for this is that they believe the supply of Linux skilled IT professionsal has caught up with teh demand for those skills.

The report as a whole is a good report to go through and get a snapshot of what the industry looks like at this moment.