The report said that the UK information security recruitment market saw an early spike in 2010 caused by demand that had been deferred because of the economic slowdown. Demand came primarily from the financial services sector.
By the latter half of 2010, demand for information security professions continued to climb as the recovery become more widespread and the available pool of professionals shrunk, leading to an increase in salaries, the survey said.
With the shrinking pool of information security professionals available for full-time employment, the contract market saw a jump in demand in the latter half of 2010 as well.
The report predicted that information security professionals’ salaries would grow at a 10% rate in 2011, as the job market stabilizes. The salary levels are expected to reach pre-crisis levels.
However, the report warned that the demand for public sector information security professionals was likely to decline as the UK government implements austerity measures over the coming years.
“Currently there is a small but growing pool of redundant public sector information security practitioners. The existence of this pool has the potential to drive salary increases down in the public sector and the overall average”, the report said.