Result of ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2009

ZDNet Asia has conducted an online survey between October 2008 and May 2009 to gain insights into salary trends and IT workforce across 8 economies in Asia region, namely China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The study polled a total of 21,627 respondents from various sectors including government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance. Here are some of the analysis results based on their feedback.

Ranking of average annual salary by region:

• Hong Kong (US$66,140)
• Singapore (US$45,341)
• Thailand (US$20,154)
• Malaysia (US$18,350)
• China (US$14,441)
• India (US$11,880)
• Philippines (US$8,448)
• Indonesia (US$6,398)

In Malaysia, respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the IT, Web and telecommunications industry were the highest paid, pulling in an average salary of RM102,280 a year.

The average annual salary of the top 10 most popular IT skills in Malaysia are:

• Consulting/Business services (RM82,037)
  
• Enterprise applications (RM77,407)
  
• Application development (RM69,530)
• Database management (RM69,774)
  
• IT security (RM67,115)
  
• Servers/Networking (RM65,422)
  
• Systems administration (RM64,455)
  
• Operating systems (RM63,710)
  
• Desktops/Software (RM62,792)
• Web development (RM61,894)

In Singapore, respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the legal and finance industry were the highest paid, pulling in an average salary of S$103,598 a year.

The average annual salary of the top 10 most popular IT skills in Singapore are:

• Consulting/Business services (S$83,103)
  
• Enterprise applications (S$78,829)
  
• Infrastructure management (S$76,043)
  
• Application development (S$70,227)
• Database management (S$67,760)
  
• Operating systems (S$67,155)
• Servers/Networking (S$64,800)
  
• Systems administration (S$64,506)
• Web development (S$63,395)
  
• Desktops/Software (S$61,515)

Whereas in Hong Kong, respondents who held IT management responsibilities in the legal and finance industry were the highest paid, pulling in an average salary of HK$824,052 a year.

The average annual salary of the top 10 most popular IT skills in Hong Kong are:

• Infrastructure management (HK$587,132)
  
• Consulting/Business services (HK$583,985)
  
• Enterprise applications (HK$566,628)
  
• IT security (HK$556,399)
  
• Application development (HK$529,132)
• Systems administration (HK$510,840)
• Servers/Networking (HK$503,710)
• Operating systems (HK$502,625)
  
• Database management (HK$497,579)
  
• Desktops/Software (HK$491,515)

For other regions, respondents with the highest paid are from the following job positions:

• China - IT management in the legal and finance industry (RMB244,000)
• India - IT management in the IT, Web and telecommunications industry (984,723 rupees)
• Thailand - IT professionals from the legal and finance industry (1.2 million baht)
  
• Philippines - IT management in the legal and finance industry (671,559 pesos)
• Indonesia - IT management in the legal and finance industry (132.33 million rupiah)

As a conclusion, if you are heading for a high pay IT career, it is wise to get into consulting/business services and/or enterprise applications. Industry wise, the legal and finance industry in the region are generally paying more to their IT staff than those in the ICT industry, except for Malaysia and India.

Click here to get more complete and detail information about the ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2009.


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• Malaysia Employment Outlook & Salary Guide 2009/2010 from Kelly Services