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Students who are experts on the net may want to consider a career in the field.

New research has found that web developers' wages have shot up 26 per cent in the last year.

A recent study by SkillsMarket/Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) has found that web developers are now some of the most sought-after professionals in Britain.

Experts have said the demand can partly be explained by the huge increase in popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Ann Swain, chief executive at ATSCo, commented: "The proliferation of social networking sites - and the increasing amount of time people are spending online - has lead to a boom in demand for online content from advertisers looking to target these audiences.

"Websites now offer a potentially much more sophisticated user experience than the plain text sites around in the 90s.

"It was relatively easy to publish a decent website back then, but now it's difficult without expert programming skills."

If you have the skills necessary to make money in the profession, it seems you're one of a select few.

There is currently an undersupply of web developers to fill job spots - which means pay is likely to rise even further as firms compete for their skills.

Ms Swain continued: "Companies are being forced to offer large incentives to get people onboard because with so few skilled IT graduates entering the marketplace, poaching from rivals is becoming a necessity.

She explained that now, many employees will only move for "big money increases".