2009 US Tech Wages Steady Vs. 2008

The latest estimates on technology wages in the US are in from tech recruiting firm Yoh. Their take “[b]ased on conversations with more than 9,000 hiring managers in over 15 major metropolitan areas” is that — surprise, surprise — wages are pretty flat compared to 2009. Here’s a look at the data:

The way such indexes work is that some period — in this case, January 2001 — is taken as the base level. Then wages in other periods become a multiple of the first.

Note that these numbers aren’t the ones in the press release that made the rounds today — they didn’t quite agree with how the company had reported jobs before, so I asked for an apples-to-apples comparison. Also note that Yoh compiles results every four weeks, so we’re seeing the development of 2009, compared to previous years, through some time in March.

My guess is that this should have been predictable because companies were largely laying off employees, not hiring, which means there was little opportunity to increase or decrease wages. Furthermore, executives would probably be nervous about both laying off employees and issuing pay cuts because they might be seen as more economically troubled than their competitors.