We all know that software jobs are taking over the world. With smartphones battling for dominance through their software and interface design, cars chock full of programmable devices (I don’t own one but every time I rent I feel like I need an hour-long tutorial just to use the radio), and wearable computers that give us everything from our heart rate to the number of calories we burn, there have to be a lot of people coming up with ways to make the next gadget superior to the last.
Now a group of 2014 salary guides from Robert Half, the huge, $4 billion (sales) staffing firm based in Menlo Park, shows how much salaries are gaining for employees with skills in the realm of engineering, software development and programming. At a time when Robert Half projects that salaries will grow, on average, 3.7% in 2014, jobs like mobile applications developer and software developer will see increases of nearly 8%.
To compile its data, Robert Half polled 1,000 recruiters in 240 offices across the country for the wisdom they have gathered from the placements they have made so far in 2013 and the trends they’re seeing in their local markets. The company puts out guides that cover various fields, including accounting/finance, technology, legal, creative and administrative. Combined, the guides include data on more than 700 jobs.
As you might expect, the 10 jobs with the greatest expected salary gains are all related to software development and computer science in some way. Here is Robert Half’s table of the top salary gainers, with the percentage increase and the projected salaries. In some cases the range is quite large, more than $40,000. That’s because the company is surveying recruiters in such disparate cities as Louisville and Los Angeles.
What jobs do recruiters expect to have the lowest gains in 2014? Administrative jobs. Junior paralegals and legal assistants at mid-sized law firms of 35-75 lawyers will have a 1.1% increase, to $41,750-$54,250. Case clerks and assistants at mid-sized law firms will have a 1% hike to $32,250-$42,250. At the bottom of the list of 700 jobs: legal word processors, with just a .5% increase to $41,750-$55,000. At least no salaries fell into the negative category this year.
In broad strokes, here are the increases Robert Half projects for five different work sectors:
Technology: 5.6%
Accounting & Finance: 3.4%
Creative & Marketing: 3.3%
Administrative & Office Support: 3.3%
Legal: 2.7%
via The 10 Jobs With The Biggest Projected Salary Gains In 2014 – Forbes.
The 10 Jobs With The Biggest Projected Salary Gains In 2014
