Technology wages across a broad group of industries dropped by an average of 45 cents an hour during the first quarter of this year, says the latest Index of Technology Wages from Yoh. This follows a nearly flat 4th quarter last year, in which the Index barely budged from the quarter before.
The average hourly wage at the end of the first quarter was $31.29 for highly skilled temporary workers in aerospace and defense, engineering, federal services, healthcare, life sciences, information technology and telecommunications. Yoh says its the lowest average wage since June 2011.
However, wages vary widely by industry and geography. The average in San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle is $43.62, while metro areas in the Northeast — New York and Boston — while lower, were also significantly above the national average.
“Clinical and information technology temporary professionals’ average wage performed better than comprehensive rates by 22 percent and 13 percent, respectively,” the Yoh report noted.
Yoh, a staffing company, measures pay for skilled technology workers in a variety of industries. Since 2001 Yoh has published a wage index for those industries. It now stands at 112.6. It was at 114.26 at the end of December 2011.