November '99 | Datamation

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open source salary data There’s good news for techies with Open Source skills: you’re wanted by employers everywhere.

Three months ago, we started tracking the market for Open Source jobs, using EarthWeb’s DICE.com job service. That gives us a pretty good idea of what employers are looking for, since DICE is one the largest online listings of information technology positions in the U.S.: At the end of December, for example, there were over 164,000 IT jobs posted there.

Which IT jobs call for open source skills? open source jobs Source: EarthWeb’s DICE IT Salary Tracker/November 1999.

Looking at the job postings over the last few months, the big trend is crystal-clear: Demand for all Open Source jobs in general is up — way up. We found 2,710 jobs listing “Apache”, “Linux”, “Perl” or “Sendmail” as needed skills in November. That’s more than double the 1,300 Open Source jobs listed three months ago. Requests for Apache skills more than tripled, while the number of jobs requiring Linux, Perl and Sendmail doubled.

What open source tech skills are most in demand? open source jobs Source: Earthweb’s DICE IT Salary Tracker/November 1999.

Perl knowledge continues to be the one single Open Source skill that employers want the most. E-commerce is hot, and programmers who are familiar with the Perl scripting language — a vital part of building Web sites — are much in demand. There were 2,335 jobs requiring knowlege of the Perl scripting language posted in November.

Where are open source positions located? open source jobs Source: EarthWeb’s DICE IT Salary Tracker/November 1999.

For reasons that we can’t explain, Open Source jobs seem to have headed west in the past few months. In September, New York City was the place to be for Open Source jobs. Now Silicon Valley is hot. Also unexplained is why Sendmail continues to draw the highest salary, even though it’s the least in demand.

What is the average salary requiring open source experience? open source jobs Source: EarthWeb’s DICE IT Salary Tracker/November 1999.

And here’s what may be the best news of all: salaries for Open Source positions are up. The average salary for a programmer with Open Source skills jumped three and a half thousand dollars in the last few three months, to $74,000 per year. That’s good news for the beginning of a new millenium.

What are open source skills worth (straight salary?) Overall average: $77,500 per year open source jobs Source: EarthWeb’s DICE IT Salary Tracker/November 1999.

What are open source skills worth (contract work?) Overall average: $69 per hour open source jobs Source: EarthWeb’s DICE IT Salary Tracker/November 1999.

Dan Orzech is a contributing editor for open source IT. Our data charts were compiled by Laurie Souza.