A shortage of IT professionals will drive up salaries and force some companies to look overseas to source talent, according to the annual Robert Walters Salary Survey.

The report found that organisations across all industries would face serious shortages due to major projects and technology upgrades.

It found that demand would remain high for Oracle R12 specialists, Microsoft developers and IT professionals with project management and business analysis experience.

General IT roles would get between a 5 per cent and 10 per cent rise this year, while niche skills coupled with domain knowledge could command a premium of up to 20 per cent.

The contracting market would get similar rises.

The shortage of talent could mean more candidates are being sought overseas, particularly South Africa and Asia.

The report found the Sydney commerce and industry market could expect significant demand for IT candidates with experience across social and digital media across UI, UX and SEO.

The outlook for the IT sector in Melbourne was strong with the financial services sector likely to drive activity.

If the National broadband Network goes ahead, demand within the telecommunications sector would also increase.  The commerce sector was expected to grow gradually if economic conditions remained stable.

The report found the IT recruitment market would continue to recover in Perth as new projects rolled out in the mining, oil and gas, financial services and utilities sectors.  Projects include network upgrades, system upgrades/enhancements, business process improvements and business intelligence.

Spark Recruitment director, Luke Singleton said salaries were moving up in general by between 10-15 per cent.

“We are experiencing most of the demand to be in the mid-level $75,000 to $130.000 base salary range rather than executive level,” he said.  “Specialist markets such as ERP and applications development will always have a premium loading due to the continued success of the resources and financial services sectors.”

The report can be found here.