Report: Texas IT workers expected to earn higher starting salaries in 2015

Starting salaries for information technology jobs will increase 5.7 percent in 2015, according to new Salary Guide from Robert Half Technology. That compares with a 3.5 percent expected increase in 2015 starting salaries for accounting, finance and marketing.

“The IT market here is just about as hot here is in Silicon Valley or anywhere else,” said Nicole Sims, Dallas metro market manager for Robert Half Technology.

Growth  in mobile, security and big data is driving the IT hiring.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the fastest growing IT industries are healthcare, oil and gas, financial services and real estate, Sims said. The jobs most in demand are: systems administrators, .net developers, software engineers, database developers and network engineers, she said.

Current average Dallas salaries include $44,478 for a computer operator, $105,081 for a Web developer and $154,532 for a big data engineer, based on Robert Half Technology’s salary calculator

Although 89 percent of technology executives are confident about their companies’ growth prospects, 61 percent said they face recruiting challenges. The nation’s average IT unemployment rate (2.9 percent) is about half of the overall jobless rate of 5.9 percent in September.

The D-FW IT unemployment rate is less than 3 percent vs. the state’s overall jobless rate of 5.3 percent in August.

“There’s a much higher demand than there is a supply,” Sims said about the D-FW area. “There’s a lot of competition for every [job] candidate. Clients are really looking for someone who’s the complete package — maybe industry experience and a culture fit.”

A tight labor market drives wage growth.

Sheryl Jean

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