This time last year, salaries were very big news indeed. Modifications to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF) had just been agreed and employers were bracing themselves for more across-the-board wage increases. The rises were justified, it was said, by surging inflation and a consequent increased cost of living.

Around the same time as the renewed PPF was agreed, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a report concluding that a recession in 2001 was an outside possibility.

At the time, the finding didn't attract much attention, perhaps because of a general disbelief that the wave of affluence could turn. With the benefit of hindsight however, the prediction was frighteningly accurate. Twelve months and thousands of lost jobs later, salary increases are the least of our worries. This year, job security is the talking point.

There is mixed salary news for beleaguered IT professionals, in that wages have not fallen, but have not seen any considerable rise either. A software development engineer can now expect to earn around £32,000 (€40,630), according to the annual Marlborough salary survey, up around £1,000, or 3 per cent on last year. A registered nurse, on the other hand saw his or her salary grow from £18,700 to £24,280, an increase of more than 20 per cent, which came on the back of industrial action in 1999.

The Marlborough survey shows that a junior ward sister's salary rose from £23,180 to £28,447 in the course of the year, while a ward sister earned £29,912, up from £24,520.

In IT, however, finding a professional who saw any more than a £1,000 increase is difficult, the survey suggests.

Financial services professionals seem to be in a similar boat, despite the anecdotal suggestion that they are in greater demand than people in other sectors.

According to a survey by recruitment agency Professional Placement Group, a novice fund manager's salary has remained static for the past 12 months, ringing in at £22,000 at its most basic, to £34,300 at its highest. With five years' experience, however, a fund manager could expect as much as £54,000, a figure that again remains unchanged on last year.

Rival firm, Hays Accountancy Personnel, meanwhile, differs slightly with this estimation, suggesting that a fund manager's salary ranges between £28,000 and £35,000.

For graduates, the Hays survey calculates that entry-level salaries will range between £13,000 and £15,000.

Salary data on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical side is still hard to come by, arguably because the area represents a relatively new area of expertise for so many firms. Available information would suggest, however, that new graduates in the sector are rewarded in line with other business areas, with salaries in the late teens commonplace for first-jobber analytical chemists or laboratory technicians.

Moving up the scale can then happen quickly, with progression into more lucrative clinical research positions taking just a few years. More senior quality control or assurance staff are likely to earn salaries in the £40,000 to £50,000 bracket.