While the outlook is increasingly bleak for tech staff in investment banks, fund managers are still actively recruiting, and salaries have risen.

The latest salary survey by recruiter Michael Page shows that technologists working in asset management continued to see an increase in their salaries in 2007 – around 5-10% – with business knowledge of derivatives and commodities attracting a premium.

The survey doesn’t cover development roles, but business analyst, project manager and programme manager recruitment within asset management remains buoyant this year, says Nick Finlay, managing consultant, investment programmes and projects at Michael Page.

“Most fund managers are still actively recruiting for IT staff. There was something of a freeze early on in the year, but that has certainly stopped now – even those that aren’t expanding their teams are still making business-critical hires.”

Asset managers are increasingly using technology as they enter new asset classes, and to differentiate themselves from the competition, according to a report by Datamonitor.

And it’s not just the front office where IT is important, says Amit Shah, financial services technology analyst with Datamonitor: “To combat low margins, operational efficiency will also rise in importance as more firms pay increasing attention to the decision on how best to structure themselves outside the front office.”

The research tips asset managers to spend $3.4bn on front-office technology by 2012.

Fidelity, the world’s biggest fund manager, has just recruited Michael Wilens to take responsibility for growth strategies related to new technologies and for managing corporate technology functions.

Buy-side IT salaries: what are you worth?

IT director/CIO £160k (high), £115k (average), £95k (low)

Programme manager £120k (high), £90k (average), £70k (low)

Project manager £95k (high), £80k (average), £70k (low)

BA/Implementation consultant £80k (high), £60k (average), £50k (low)

Source: Michael Page (base only, bonuses not included)