The Middle East, most often associated with the oil industry, war zones and religious fervor in the American mind, is getting now gaining a reputation among IT professional as a place where salaries are soaring.
Due to mounting demand for IT security, a new survey finds that salaries for expat skilled IT security professionals are expected to reach $15K per month, leading what it calls a “huge” global skills migration.
It is the scarcity of security professionals that is driving up their salaries, according to the survey by the IT security firm Oger Systems. According to CertMag, security managers with ISACA certifications commanded the second-highest pay out of all IT workers in the Mideast, at an average of $9,500 per month.
“Not only are our successful applicants earning in a tax-free environment, but they are on multiples of the rates they were being paid back home. If their home countries can’t or won’t pay them competitive rates, they have reason not to move. And they’re coming here in the thousands,” David Michaux, security consulting division manager of Oger Systems said in the release.
According to the survey, one-third of Oger’s job applicants in 2007 were from India, followed by Brazil (14 percent) and Malaysia and Pakistan (7 percent). The United States represented only 5 percent of applicants, and the UK, only 2 percent.