The networking sector remains one of the most buoyant areas of the UK IT job market, according to the IT Job Board.

The overall IT job market defied the credit crunch by remaining steady in the first six months of 2008, according to the IT Job Board’s latest ‘skills in demand’ figures.

IT positions in investment banks increased 50 per cent sequentially during Q2, with hedge fund positions doubling. Testing roles also rose by 8.3 per cent between Q1 and Q2.

IT support, business analysts, networking and programming roles were stable, while project and IT manager roles declined slightly.

Adam Stokes, operations manager at www.theitjobboard.co.uk, said: “The good news is that we are seeing stability across IT positions as a whole, with no further significant drops since the beginning of the year – in fact an increase in networking positions is a positive sign that infrastructure projects are still going ahead.

“Surprisingly, we are seeing a surge in demand for financial IT workers, but this could be due to the work being put in to develop systems that allow for better risk.”