8 Trends Driving IT Job Growth, Salaries

1. Expect more churn in IT staff as CIOs accelerate their move to more flexibile staffing models, says Foote Partners. CIOs are outsourcing more technical work, including managed IP services such as VoIP and VPNs. They’re hiring more contractors for desktop and security services, and they’re putting more applications such as remote backup in the cloud. At the same time, they’re looking to hire IT people with business and analytical skills, such as risk management and project management. Indeed, CIOs report that they’re having trouble hiring IT people because either they can’t find IT professionals with the right business skills or they can’t afford them. All of this means more turnover in IT departments.

2. IT hiring will grow in the second half of 2010, according to Dice.com. The Dice.com Web site, which lists tech job openings, conducted a survey of IT hiring managers and recruiters, and nearly half of them said they plan to add 10% more employees in the next six months than they did in the first half of the year. Another 28% of respondents plan to increase hiring by 11% to 20%. Survey respondents are getting more optimistic about salaries, too. A quarter of survey respondents predicted that IT salaries will rise in 2010, compared to 10% of survey respondents making this prediction six months ago. Another good sign: 69% of survey respondents said layoffs are not likely at their companies during the next six months.

3. Banks are starting to hire IT staff, but they are in no hurry to fill open jobs, says Dice.com. Dice says banks are looking for IT professionals who can manage new technology or integration projects, but that they are taking from six to eight months to fill open jobs. This compares to three or four months to fill jobs prior to the recession. Dice said banks are being “really selective” and are looking for “exact matches” for their detailed job descriptions.

4. IT pros are getting paid slightly more than last year, says Janco Associates’ mid-year IT salary survey. Total mean compensation for IT pros has increased to $78,210 from $77,690 a year ago – a rise of less than 1%. However, most of the additional money is going to CIOs, and not their staffs. Compensation of CIOs in large enterprises rose 7.5% to $181,533, and in midsized enterprises it rose 3.7% to $169,303, Janco found. Lower-level IT pros, on the other hand, are experiencing reduced bonuses, frozen salaries and in some cases they are being asked to pay a greater portion of their healthcare costs, Janco said. One positive sign: companies are more willing to consider flexible hours and work schedules as a low-cost benefit for IT workers.

5. CIO confidence is up, according to a survey released in June by Robert Half Technology. The survey found that 10% of CIOs plan to expand their IT departments in the third quarter of 2010, while 4% plan to reduce staffing. The states with the most active IT hiring are expected to include New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Overall, 81% of CIOs said they are confident in their companies’ growth prospects in the third quarter, while 40% said their firms are likely to invest in new IT projects in the next three months.

6. Job hopping is on the rise, prompting CIOs to worry more about IT staff retention. A recent report found that more Americans quit their jobs in the last three months than were fired. The rise in voluntary departures is prompting CIOs to worry about retaining their best IT staff. The Robert Half Technology survey found that 34% of technology executives are concerned about losing top IT performers in the next year, up three percentage points from last month. Similarly, 43% of CIOs say it is “challenging” to find skilled IT professionals today.

7. CIOs say networking and security top their list of hot IT skills. CIOs surveyed by Robert Half Technology said they had the hardest time filling jobs in networking, applications development and security. Other hot skills include software development, database management and help desk/technical support. Similarly, a recent survey of 400 U.K. recruitment consultants found that IT security skills were most in demand for permanent hires. The Report on Jobs, by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, also found that full-time staff with enterprise software and developer skills were in short supply.

8. Government, usually the safest sector of the economy in a downturn, has announced more job cuts this year than any other employer. Challenger, Gray & Christmas said government agencies and nonprofits announced more job cuts than any other industry segment in May. The sector shed 16,697 jobs in May, 12% more than the job cuts announced in April. All total, the sector has shed 93,470 jobs in 2010. What’s driving the cuts are state and municipality budget problems, which are likely to continue due to lower tax revenues and stagnant housing values.

Full Article: www.networkworld.com

IT Hiring Jumps in January!

U.S. IT employment increased by 12,900 jobs, or 0.3%, in January, one of the best month-to-month gains since the recession hit in late 2008, per Computerworld.The positive news comes after the prolonged recession had reduced overall IT employment by some 200,000 jobs.

Tech employment peaked in November, 2008, with some 4 million jobs. But in the first half of last year, IT employment fell off the cliff. The employment picture began stabilizing last summer. The January report noted by Computerworld lists a total of 3.823 million IT jobs.

The report described the latest monthly growth figures as “better than incremental.” It added that “signs are encouraging that businesses demand for IT professionals and services is growing.”

Even so, the tech job market has a lot of ground to cover to make up for last year’s job losses.
The IEEE-USA, which is part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., said Friday that the number of working computer professionals in the U.S. dropped by 198,000 during 2009, according to its analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The IEEE-USA recently said the unemployment rate for software engineers fell from 4.7% to 4.1% from the third to the fourth 2009 quarter, while the total pool of employed software engineers fell from 970,000 to 952,000, a nearly 2% decline. It attributed the decline to decisions by engineers to leave the field because of retirement, or to switch professions.

The IEEE said 82,000 software engineering jobs and 78,000 positions for computer scientists and systems analysts disappeared between 2008 and 2009.

“Putting engineers and computer professionals back to work will help power the U.S. economy,” said Evelyn H. Hirt, who became the IEEE-USA’s president in January. “They will foster technological breakthroughs and engineering solutions to meet the great challenges facing our country and help create opportunities throughout the workforce,” she said in a statement.

Another barometer of tech demand are the number of jobs posted on Dice, a technology jobs board. There were nearly 58,000 jobs posted today; as of Jan. 4, it had nearly 49,000 jobs posted.

ASOCIA Group Offers New Recruitment Process Outsourcing(RPO) Services

Asocia Group, recently announced the addition of new Recruitment Process Outsourcing(RPO) services to offer clients expanded services and options for retaining top talent. Asocia is dedicated to assisting clients to secure the most talented people in the market and in optimizing overall performance within organizations.

Asocia is continually expanding and improving our service offerings to assist clients in achieving a competitive advantage in their market. In today’s economy, it is critical for companies to have the best talent suited for their particular needs. Our RPO services assist clients in obtaining higher quality candidates and reduces the overall cost of the recruitment process, as we can significantly reduce the time to hire.

Asocia offers Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services to assist in managing the entire recruitment/hiring process from job profiling through the on-boarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, methodology and reporting. Asocia delivers innovative, scalable and cost-effective RPO services that gives you the competitive advantage you need to compete for talent and win.

Benefits of Asocia’s RPO services include:

- Improved time to hire
- Increased quality of the candidate pool
- Reduced costs
- Improved governmental compliance

Asocia Flexible RPO Services

Asocia provides flexible RPO service offerings and can service all or part of your recruitment processes.

We offer flexible RPO solutions tailored to your specific needs:

- Full Outsource Recruiting
- Project Recruiting
- Contract Recruiting
- Trademark methodology that enables you to recruit top performers

We assume the ownership of the design, management of the recruitment process, and provide measurable results using standard industry metrics. Asocia provides an efficient, cost-effective recruiting solution to assist in obtaining the talent you need.

Asocia Recruitment Process Outsourcing Press Release January 4, 2010