The PC industry bounced back during the end of 2009, and was able to continue its momentum through the first quarter of 2010.

PC shipments rose 24 percent from the same quarter a year ago to 79.1 million units worldwide, according to IDC’s Quarterly PC Tracker report, issued on Wednesday. It’s the second straight quarter of double-digit growth, and indicates the industry is on its way to recovery after a disastrous late 2008 and most of 2009.

The chancellor’s decision to offer tax breaks to the UK gaming industry has been welcomed as “fantastic news” by those who work in it.

Tiga, the trade association that represents UK games developers said tax relief would create 3,500 more jobs over the next five years. It would allow the UK to “compete on a global stage,” said Tiga chief executive Richard Wilson.

The surprise announcement was made in the UK budget. “This is an inspired decision. Games tax relief is good for the UK video games industry, good for UK consumers and good for the UK economy,” said Mr Wilson.

He predicted it would allow £457m to be invested in new games over the next five years.

Source: BBC Tech News

Far fewer people are finishing IT apprenticeships in the UK than are taking them up, new figures have shown.

The significant gap between the number of people beginning apprenticeships with IT companies in the UK and those completing them was revealed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in a written answer to parliament last week. The BIS figures, announced by business minister Kevin Brennan, show that while 30,700 people started IT apprenticeships between 2005 and 2009, only 16,300 completed them.

The ratio of people completing apprenticeships is comparable to that of other industries over the same period – about the same as retail and commerce apprenticeships where 180,300 people started and 96,500 people finished, but lower than construction and planning apprenticeships where 106,200 started and 72,300 finished.

Source: ZDNet

The banking, telecoms and software sectors will be the key areas for IT employment in 2010, according to new research from technology recruitment organisation The IT Job Board.

Nearly half of the IT professionals questioned for the survey said that the banking sector would be the hottest recruiter next year, despite a widespread meltdown of the financial services sector in 2009. This was followed by the software and IT services sectors with 42 per cent of respondents and telecoms with 41 per cent.

Around a third said that project management roles would be most in demand next year, and the same figure chose business analyst jobs.

“I believe that next year the finance sector will really pick up. Banking was the first to be hit during the recession, but it will also be the first to recover, and it will offer a lot of opportunity in terms of IT recruitment,” said IT Job Board sales director Peter Healey.

SAP, .Net and Java skills will be among the most highly sought after in these industries next year, the report found, while 58 per cent of respondents said that contract jobs would be in greater demand during 2010, compared to permanent positions.

The number of women resigning from IT jobs has risen over the last year and the pay gap between the sexes widened for the first time in 11 years.

Research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and pay researcher Remuneration Economics shows 5.7 percent of women working in IT resigned from their roles in 2006, a rise of 2.1 percent on the previous year.

In terms of pay, women saw an average pay rise of 2.9 percent compared to a 3.1 percent increase for men, the first time in 11 years that men’s earnings have risen more than women’s.

But the research found female managers enjoy faster promotion than men, with a 37-year-old woman working as a team leader typically five years younger than her male counterpart.

Source: ZDNet