Linux talent shortage drives up salaries

It pays to be a Linux expert, and if you have any needs that are not being met by your employer and you have Linux skills, now might be a good time to start making some demands.

The Linux Foundation, the non-profit consortium that fosters the expansion of Linux and which gives Linus Torvalds his paycheck, tag-teamed with Dice Holdings, the jobs posting site, to get a handle on what's going on out there in the Linux workforce in terms of salaries, benefits, and working conditions.

The deep sort on Dice's Linux-related data has been put together in a Linux Jobs Report by the foundation, which you can get here (PDF). The report is based on data from more than 2,300 IT managers in the corporate and government sectors and headhunters from around the world.

Across the respondents, 81 per cent told Dice that demand for Linux techies is on the rise, but finding Linux experts is "somewhat difficult". When demand exceeds supply, prices rise, as we all know from our Microeconomics 101 courses. Read more...