Bucking a year-long trend in declining pay for IT certifications, security certifications compensation in North America increased nearly 2 percent over the past six months, according to market research released today by IT workforce research firm Foote Partners. The research is based on a survey of 33,800 US and Canadian participants. It indicates that security recruitment and compensation are recovering from the post-9/11 and SOX impacts on security skills demand, supply and investment levels -- and benefiting from rising concerns over third party networks and high-profile security breaches.

According to the quarterly Foote Partners report, pay for 149 leading noncertified IT skills grew 4.1 percent in value in the last six months and 9.1 percent over the past year, completely overwhelming pay performance for 141 surveyed certified IT skills, which fell 1.1 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Only one category of IT certifications is showing signs of life: IT security. It’s the only area that grew in value in the past six months, up an average of 1.7 percent across the entire group twenty-seven security certifications surveyed.

"We've been reporting for more than a year that pay for IT certifications has been on a steady decline, while the value of skills without certification heading the other direction," said David Foote, Foote Partners CEO and Chief Research Officer. "But there is one category of IT certifications -- and only one, according to our data -- that is showing signs of life: IT security. It’s the area that grew in value in the past six months, up an average of 1.7 percent across the entire group twenty-seven security certifications that we survey."

Foote Partners research shows salaries as well as skills pay for IT security professionals went flat a few years ago, following what had been a strong wave of hiring in the wake of Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, and Sarbanes-Oxley Act legislation. So many IT professionals redirected their careers to security skills and jobs that there became an oversupply of talent compared to demand, and that inevitably drove prices down. In contrast to other areas of IT employment -- such as SAP, applications development, and Web system development -- employers haven’t had the same interest in IT security staffing investments in recent times. That's catching up with them in the marketplace, according to Foote.

"We noted this trend a year ago. Customers are becoming nervous and demanding more security in their vendors’ products and services. This is especially true when their data is running across vendor networks," said Foote. “We believe this trend in IT security certifications pay is an indication that, finally, there is something other than government regulation that is driving business leaders to examine how critically short-handed their companies are when it comes to staffing the IT security function."

Historically, market forces have been more effective than regulation in moving companies to correct deficiencies in their products and services. In the case of security, such market forces are compounded by sudden serious security breaches, such as the recent theft of the personal information of more than 45 million TJX customers. "Businesses have by no means been ignoring security, but many companies are seriously understaffed and underskilled in their IT security departments and they know it. Security certifications are among those that have defined the IT certifications industry from the beginning. Security is a deeply technical domain and certification is an important qualification where technical skills dominate."

Generally speaking, employers have been searching for IT workers with more than just technical skills, which has substantially changed the landscape of IT jobs and careers in recent years. "They want specific industry, business, process, customer, and technical skills in different combinations to match new IT roles in the enterprise," says Foote. "But with security, the emphasis is still very much about the technology."

About the study

Foote Partners’ Hot Technical Skills and Certifications Pay Index was first published in 1999. It is updated every three months. It tracks IT salaries and skills pay for 290 certified and noncertified technical and management skills and certifications. The Q1 2007 edition has been compiled from data surveyed January 1, 2007 to April 1, 2007 and includes data from 33,800 workers in the U.S. and Canada who are receiving pay for specific IT skills.

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