Technology companies will be ramping up recruitment of app developers in the next twelve months but face a “scarce” supply of quality designers, according to a survey by online job site Dice Holdings conducted on behalf of Bloomberg Businessweek.

The online survey, carried out October 11-15, was based on 283 recruiters who use New York-based Dice’s site and said they had hired mobile professionals this year.

The report notes that the demand for programmers who can write for mobile platforms, such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS, has stoked competition among recruiters, driven up salaries, and led employers to consider getting new talent through acquisitions. However, the pool of experienced candidates is not deep.

The software publishing industry employed 257,300 workers in August, an increase of just 0.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the next 12 months, a fifth of recruiters anticipate a substantial increase in hiring, 37 percent see a slight increase, and 34 percent plan to hire about the same number.

Interestingly, the report found that experience with Apple’s mobile platform carried the most weight on résumés, with 72 percent of recruiters saying they are hiring for development of iPhone applications, and 38 percent saying iPhone expertise is the most attractive among platforms. About 60 percent are hiring for Android development, and 23 percent said new recruits with knowledge of Google’s platform are most highly prized. Some 48 percent of employers are hiring for BlackBerry, while just 16.1 percent said that’s the most desirable type of mobile expertise.

The report added that the most common salary range for mobile engineers and designers was US$75,001 to US$100,000, according to 41 percent of respondents. About 28 percent said average pay was US$100,001 to US$125,000, while 21 percent said it was US$50,001 to US$75,000. Almost a third of employers raised salary levels for the average mobile worker “higher than normal,” citing the increase in demand for talent.