2010 saw demand for IT personnel climb steadily, according to data from specialist IT recruitment website CWJobs.co.uk

The data reveals an 8% increase in Q2, followed by 8% in Q3 and 5% in the final quarter of the year.

However, job levels remain almost half the pre-recession levels seen in 2007 and 2008.

For the last two quarters of 2010 a number of emerging skills were increasing in demand including project development process Agile and virtualisation infrastructure platform Vmware, as well as development tool Scrum used with Agile and Google’s mobile device operating system Android.

Richard Nott, website director at CWJobs, says: “Last year the IT recruitment market really showed its resilience in the face of numerous challenges while the economy was still in recovery. The industry is evolving, particularly where emerging skills such as Agile Scrum are increasing in demand. As IT professionals continue to adapt their skills and experience to this ever-changing environment, they will remain in a strong position as 2011 brings them a new set of challenges.”