Where are vendor salaries heading?

The papers are predicting bumper bonuses for the banks this year. What about salaries in the data vendor world? This time two years ago, salaries had still not picked up after their slide following 9/11. There was still the uncertainty of another terrorist attack around the corner. Companies at the time had the pick of candidates walking the street and, therefore, they could drive salaries down. A time bomb of underpaid and over-qualified staff (versus peers in the teams they had joined). In 2005 we have seen a marked adjustment and believe that on average Junior Sales' salaries have increased in a two year period by 22%. In some cases Senior Sales roles have seen an increase in basic salary of 33%. (By this we mean Freshman has seen an increase in salaries by these amounts compared to similar roles we fulfilled 24 months ago). This increase has been fuelled by a shortage of supply of candidates for certain roles. Also, many sales people have been sitting tight in their roles. They have perhaps held off looking for jobs due to market uncertainty. There has been a steady uplift in the market and this has created more movement in the job market. Finally, some firms are losing the people they took on at lower salaries two years ago as rigid internal pay processes often make it difficult for staff to get their salaries back up to the market rate.