What Are The Most Consistently In-Demand IT Skills?

With demand for IT contractors expected to rise again after the general election in May, a recent article on Contractor UK spoke to a technology recruitment specialist for his thoughts on which skills were going to be ‘reliably hot,’ and which would simply enjoy a fleeting boom.

The expert explained that thanks to the thriving financial services industry, the three key skills that would be most sought after in the foreseeable future were: Big Data specialists, Business Analysts and Infrastructure Engineers.

With rates of between £400 and £500 per day, Big Data specialists have been in significant demand for a while now. However, as companies are becoming increasingly aware of just how much value their data has and how it can benefit them, more and more are looking for the expertise of data specialists – meaning that demand has intensified.

Meanwhile, rising awareness of data has also boosted demand for Business Analysts, who again can request rates of £400-£500 a day. After data has been collected, it is up to Business Analysts to decide how it should then inform future business operations and decisions. Individuals with these skills are able to find ways to make this happen and can therefore give businesses a competitive edge.

The third most in-demand IT skill is infrastructure engineering, with engineers currently earning between £300 and £500 per day. Without these experts, who create and develop the infrastructure required to gather and analyse data, the previous two roles would not exist; so as data becomes more prevalent, so does demand for Infrastructure Engineers.

As well as these three skills, the expert notes that there has also been a rise in demand for Mobile specialists, particularly following Google’s recent algorithm changes that mean the search engine now favours mobile-optimised websites. There is also a consistent need for Web developers and User Experience specialists.