The Empowerdex empowerment-rating audit has awarded African Legend (AL) Indigo an 'A` rating.
The star-spangled banner seems to have lost some of its sparkle for South African IT professionals during the past 18 months.
ITWeb`s survey found that of all the avenues for finding employment, a personal contact is far more likely to get one a job than a recruitment agency or advert in the newspaper.
Predictions last year that the brain drain was coming to an end appear to have been on the mark.
Recruiters report that a 'brain gain` is under way, but add that finding the right skills for the available posts is still easier said than done.
The high salaries paid to some IT professionals may paint a rosy picture, but IT recruitment companies say up to 55% of the professionals on their books are out of work and many of them have little chance of finding jobs soon.
Contracting is a risky business for IT professionals: most contractors do not receive any form of paid or sick leave, few receive bonuses and job security is minimal. On the plus side, however, they win hands down in the total monthly income stakes.
The responses captured online form 2 977 IT professionals provided the basis for ITWeb`s annual IT salary survey.
Most IT workers are involved in software development, and this group reported the highest average salaries.
While respondents report increases of up to 15%, the average salary figures show a slow growth rate that fails to outstrip inflation.
The situation for women in IT does not appear to have changed much during the past year: women still make up only around 20% of the IT workforce and still earn a lot less than men.
Not much has changed when it comes to the gender and race of the survey sample - for the fifth consecutive year, there is a strong bias toward the white male IT population.