This has been a year of significant shifts in the IT job market, marked by both layoffs at big tech companies and continued demand for skilled professionals at end-user companies. While large tech companies made headlines with layoffs earlier in the year, the overall IT job market remains stronger than expected.
Despite the changes in 2024, unemployment remains at low levels and inflation is coming under control. We anticipate modest upward pressure on IT personnel wages in 2025. Overall, our IT Salary Report 2025 anticipates that average wages for IT workers will rise 3.3% in 2025. This is higher than the 3.0% we projected last year, which is a good sign for IT personnel, especially considering the aforementioned layoffs.
As shown in Figure 2 from our full executive summary, a healthy 60% of all US IT organizations plan to increase their IT head counts in 2025, according to our annual salary survey. This is much higher than the 37% projected rate for 2024 and the 55% projected for 2023. It is noteworthy that only 3% of survey respondents plan to reduce IT personnel in 2025.
“Our survey shows that the IT job market is experiencing a delicate balance of challenges and opportunities,” said Tom Dunlap, director of research for Avasant Research, based in Los Angeles. “It’s clear that, despite some turbulence, end-user companies are driving a renewed focus on IT investments and skills development, positioning 2025 as a year of strategic growth for IT personnel.”
After the tumultuous post-COVID and “Big Quit” years, the IT hiring market seems to be showing slow but with steady growth. Voluntary attrition rates remain high, especially among younger employees. We received some interesting comments from respondents in this regard. “[Overall,] attrition has returned to normal since the COVID years,” one respondent commented. “However, it’s still difficult to retain early career talent. They tend to chase higher offers and leave in clusters as they discuss amongst each other.”
As always, certain IT positions will receive much greater pay raises than the 3.3% average projected increase. At the same time, compensation in some positions is actually declining. Automation, AI, and other technologies are impacting the demand for many roles. While overall salaries are growing, we found there was more volatility in some job categories. We examine these trends in the full report.
This full report contains top-line findings from our salary survey. Findings include the percentage of projected salary increases in 2025, the expected change in IT head count in 2025, the voluntary attrition rate, the impact of Gen AI on IT organizations, and the toughest IT jobs to fill.
The full report estimates 2025 salaries for 82 IT job functions in more than 400 US metropolitan areas and 20 sectors. The report is based on our annual salary survey of IT organizations in the US, along with other sources of compensation data, as well as regional and industry data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). For trend information, we also use our annual IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study and data from our Worldwide IT Spending and Staffing Outlook for 2024 study. A complete description of the methodology is provided at the end of the report.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report, IT Salary Report 2025. The full report is available at no charge for subscribers or may be purchased directly from our website (click for pricing). The complete 35-page executive summary and sample salary tables can be downloaded at no charge.