Other IT leaders have agreed, noting that there is a split between senior roles, who still view job satisfaction as the prime reason for changing jobs and junior roles where a higher pay packet is needed just to keep afloat.

Andrew McManus, IT director at NEC Group said: "For the more senior members of the team, any by this I mean PM's, BA's, Architects and Managers, retention of high quality people the primary concern is for job satisfaction and more specifically the feeling of belonging to a business in which they can contribute to the success. "The financial rewards are very important and, you could argue part of this feeling of belonging, but I believe they are still less important as the job satisfaction."

However McManus conceded that if the job satisfaction wanes then pay will inevitably become a more important factor.

Another IT leader is finding that even among senior IT recruits, pay is the prime directive. Steven Ross, CTO for the Royal College of Physicians is currently recruiting IT staff and said he found pay to be the biggest consideration.

He said: "I would say from my experience over the past several weeks, where we have been trying to recruit an IT Business Analyst and a Senior Analyst Programmer, that pay is a key concern now, over and above job satisfaction and is the main driver for people wanting to change jobs."