Good news, job seekers: IT certifications are hot again

No one is quite sure if demand for IT workers is slowing or steady. Regardless, what you need to know is this: Plenty of jobs are still out there, and employers are paying more for people with the right mix of skills — and certifications.

That’s good news. For years, the value of certifications was on the decline, while premiums paid for noncertified skills soared. But earlier this year, that started to change, and new data shows the renewed trend ito certificates’ value is taking root.

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“In a significant reversal of a long-standing trend, average pay premiums for IT certifications rose 1.5 percent in the third quarter of 2013, the largest quarterly gain since 2005 and the first time since 2006 that there has been two consecutive quarter of positive growth in pay for certifications,” reports David Foote, chief analyst at Foote Partners, which surveys IT salaries and premium pay across more than 2,400 employers.

Premium pay for noncertified skills increased by just 0.4 percent in the quarter. But given that those premiums have jumped in 29 of the last 36 quarters, noncertified skills also remain worth pursuing. To be clear, premium pay is esentially a bonus on top of salary. Those percentage rises aren’t as great in dollar value as the numbers may suggest. For example, if your salary is $50,000 and you get a $3,000 cert premium, a 5 percent rise in that premium is $150 (5 percent of $3,000, not of your $50,000 salary or the $53,000 total).

Still, it’s real money. Perhaps more important, it reflects job demand throughout the industry because premiums tend to increase as the supply of qualified workers tightens.

The hottest IT certifications Over the last six months, the hottest certifications have been in the following:

• Systems administration and engineering, gaining 3.4 percent in value
• Architecture and project management, gaining 2.7 percent
• Databases, gaining 2.4 percent
• Information security, gaining 1.8 percent

At the same time, certification premiums for Web development dropped 3.1 percent, and premiums for certs in application development and programming languages fell 1.7 percent.

Here is a partial list of specific IT certifications earning workers above-average pay premiums right now and that Foote expects to continue to grow at a brisk pace (Foote’s latest PDF report lists many more): Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), CWNP Certified Wireless Security Professional, CWNP/Certified Wireless Network Expert, GIAC Certified Forensics Analyst (GCFA), and GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA).

Here are some of the noncertified skills commanding the best premiums: Apache CouchDB, big data analytics, business intelligence, business performance management (software/systems), capacity planning and management, and data architecture.

IT jobs are still plentiful, despite reduced need for “core IT” I’m something of a numbers geek, but I won’t inflict too much of that on you. One reason we see a lot of difference in reports on the strength of the job market is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is rather stubborn about how to define information technology.

When you ask BLS about what’s happening in IT, it shows you stats from a group called “computer systems design and related services.” That group covers much of the traditional core of IT, including software development, designing and integrating computer systems, and on-site management of systems for clients. For that group, the number of “core IT” jobs expected to be available in 2014 is smaller than in 2013.

It’s a handy number (in fact, I used it last week to analyze the growing percentage of women hires in IT), but it doesn’t include, for example, people who work for Intel. That’s because Intel is a manufacturing company, and its employees fall into a separate category. It also appears that the BLS doesn’t count many people in computer-related jobs that fall outside of those traditional definitions yet work in technology-dependent sectors like finance, argues Foote.

Using the BLS’s narrow definition of IT, we see that a little less than 40,000 jobs have been created so far this year, compared to 85,000 last year, and 90,000 in 2011. The last few months have been particularly anemic — the market actually shrank a bit in September, though some of the slowdown is likely due to the two-week government shutdown in October.

But when looking at IT more broadly, as Foote does, the picture is different: He sees a net gain of 10,400 jobs in October alone. “The truth is that shifts in IT roles and responsibilities have shaken the foundation of what it means to be an IT professional, and this has had a profound impact on the IT skills market. Employers continue to aggressively pursue workers with multiple talents mixing technology, domain, business, process, and people skills,” writes Foote.

I often use the number of jobs listed on Dice.com, one of the largest tech job boards, to get a sense of the tech employment picture. Dice has been advertising an average of nearly 83,000 positions all year, about half of which are full-time, and 35 percent are posted by employers seeking contractors. Most of those positions stay on the board for about 14 days, says Dice spokeswoman Jennifer Bewley.

Dice is showing no slowdown, the BLS views a reduction, and Foote is seeing growth. I’m not qualified to critique the methodologies behind these differing numbers. Though Foote may cast his net too widely, it’s not likely that he’s completely wrong, and given the Dice numbers, I think we’re looking at a very healthy job market for skilled IT hands.

Even if the BLS is right that growth in the IT job market is slowing, there’s still plenty of opportunity if you have the right skills — and certs.

I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Post them here (Add a comment) so that all our readers can share them, or reach me at bill@billsnyder.biz. Follow me on Twitter at BSnyderSF.

This article, “Good news, job seekers: IT certifications are hot again,” was originally published by InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bill Snyder’s Tech’s Bottom Line blog and follow the latest technology business developments at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.