Despite mass layoffs, tech salaries are back on the up globally

Tech salaries have bucked the global headwinds and continued to grow around the world, with pay for the most in-demand roles jumping by 20% in just a year.

According to recruiter Talent’s More Than Money Salary Guide 2023, salaries for tech and digital jobs around the world have remained strong and in some cases continued to grow, despite the slowing market and economic turmoil in recent years.

The report found tech salaries and contract rates have increased 15-20% on average globally.

Cyber security roles enjoyed the biggest wage increase of 20% on average in the last year, thanks to huge demand for professionals with a security skillset, while data analytics, testing and cloud infrastructure roles had the highest contract rate growth at 15-20% in the last year.

The Talent report is based on data from over 12,900 job placements made by the recruiter in the last 12 months.

The report found that the fastest growing tech skills around the world are cyber security, data analytics, Microsoft Azure and Python.

In Australia, the report found that despite a changing landscape, demand is still strong for candidates with the right digital and tech skillsets, particularly in cyber security and data analysis.

In Sydney, the report revealed that tech salaries have begun to plateau after the rapid growths seen since mid-2020. But in contrast to this overall trend, there have been pay increases for those in cyber and software development due to continual high demand for these skills.

“The headwinds caused by rising global inflation, the resulting interest rises and the ongoing impact of the Ukraine war on supply chain continues,” Talent managing director NSW Matthew Munson said.

“What we are seeing is a knock-on effect on organisations hiring confidence, as employers are unsure of how this year will play out and how long the global inflation problem will continue.”

Tech employers in Sydney are taking either a cautious or bullish approach, Munson said.

“The more cautious have decreased hiring and in some cases implemented hiring freezes, whereas the more bullish are taking advantage of the market to increase their hiring whilst their competitors hesitate.”

According to the report, a senior web designer in Sydney is making up to $150,000 annually, while a junior is raking in $90,000. A UX design lead is making a maximum of $110,000 in Sydney.

In Melbourne, tech salaries and contract rates increased by an average of 25% from July 2021 to June 2022, but remained stable in the last six months.

“Overall, the market for IT workers has come back down from the white hot high demand of early-mid 2022,” Talent managing director Victoria Simon Yeung said.

“There have been a number of significant changes to the national and local economic landscape, particularly in the past six months, which have affected the Victorian tech sector and the IT labour market, however the tech sector nationally remains strong.”

A UX or UI design lead in Melbourne is making up to $220,000 annually, according to the report.

There have been significant layoffs in the tech sector in recent months. Most recently, Google announced that around 12,000 employees would be laid off, after Meta, Amazon, Twitter and Salesforce had already announced major job cuts.

But the Talent report said that this must be taken in the context of the huge growth these tech giants enjoyed in the previous two years. Salesforce, for example, increased its global headcount by 32% from October 2021 to December 2022, and recently announced a cut of 10%.