Salaries for .Net programmers have risen in the July 2005 period, especially for those with ASP.Net/VB.Net and C# skills.

Demand has also increased for senior developers, architects and team leaders, according to the July-September 2005 forecast from Hays Information Technology. Calling it a seasonal trend, the recruiter says the reason for this demand is companies have started new projects early in the financial year for which they need experts to design and budget and assist with hiring.

Overall, salaries for IT professionals have increased across the board. In Australia and New Zealand, 50 percent of employers increased salaries up to 3 percent, and 42 percent increased salaries between 3 and 6 percent; 8 percent of employers were feeling generous, raising salaries between 6 and 10 percent.

Hays Information Technology recruitment general manager Peter Noblett said the agency is not seeing a market war between Java and .Net developers, rather a strong push for people with a background in programming.

"A lot of people got in to .Net after using Visual Basic and thought the next logical step was .Net," Noblett said.

"A lot of our clients are going with .Net and Microsoft has done a really good job on pushing it."

Noblett also confirmed the "bouyant" economy is fuelling permanent staff rates, with a slight increase in temporary and permanent roles. Noblett said CIOs and CEOs now have money for staff.

"It seems to me the purse strings have been loosened," Noblett said.

The quarterly forecast also predicted further candidate shortages in the coming months, with Hays indicating no signs of its abating; organizations intending to hire should be prepared to be flexible by training candidates who show potential.