Skills crisis: Falling wages and crestfallen workers

It's no secret that there is a squeeze on IT pay. Yesterday's decree by Barclays that contractor rates be reduced by 20 per cent, take it or leave it, shows this perfectly (http://www.silicon.com/a53527 ). Can you imagine such a move two years ago?

Now, recruiter TheSkillsMarket has revealed that rewards even for the most in-demand skills have dropped dramatically. Since the start of the year, salaries for Java experts have, on average, fallen 21.6 per cent, for example (http://www.silicon.com/a53571 ).

Contractors have reported even sharper falls in some instances.

It would seem there is no longer a skills crisis. But more than this, the skills gap - where even skilled and available IT pros are deemed to have the wrong skills, as documented in our Skills Survey 2002 (http://www.silicon.com/ss2002 ) - seems to have eased.

We would like to think this is because people are training in exactly the right areas for all sorts of employers and projects but that is less likely than demand slackening to levels many in the industry won't have seen before.

Just as the demand for staff has trailed the end of the recent boom economy - surrounding several areas related to IT, not just dot-coms - so too government schemes trail 'real world' scenarios. As such, the UK Fast Track Visa scheme must be scrutinised closely by government more than ever.

Workers shouldn't be imported when there are ample skills on our doorstep but likewise the scheme shouldn't be dismissed out of hand - as it has in several quarters - when there are real prospects for a recovery over the next 18 months.

Dare we say it - let's be ready for the next skills crisis. Things won't always be like they are now.