Rest 2010 IT Hiring Prospects

By the end of 2010, it is predicted a modest increase in IT hiring by the latest Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report. The report is conducted among 1,400 CIOs from US companies with more than 100 employees. About 9% CIOs foresee the IT staff hiring while 6% plan the cutbacks in the fourth quarter of 2010. and this 3% increase is down three points from the last quarter's forecast, but there is three points increase from this time last year.

In addition, we can see about 84% CIOs are at least somewhat confident in their companies' increase prospects, up three points from the prior quarter.

“Technology executives continue to add staff to keep up with rising workloads and to implement projects previously put on hold,” “Many organizations have realized that technology investments can lead to long-term cost savings and better efficiency, which has resulted in hiring in a number of IT specialties.” - said John Reed, executive director of Robert Half Technology.

There are key results from the survey.

1. Most active IT hiring is expected in the South Atlantic and East South Central regions.
13% CIOs in the South Atlantic region decide to hire IT staff and 4% forecast personnel reductions, for a net 9% increase in hiring activity. In addition to network administration, technology executives in the region report strong demand for IT professionals with desktop support skills. Eighty-seven percent of CIOs in the South Atlantic region are somewhat or very confident in their companies' growth prospects for the fourth quarter. CIOs in the East South Central region also forecast hiring activity above the national average. Eight percent of CIOs expect to expand their IT departments and 3 percent foresee staff cutbacks, for a net 5 percent increase.

2. 37 percent are very confident in their companies' increase prospects, while 84% CIOs are at least somewhat confident.
When we ask how the CIOs are confident in their organizations' increase prospects in the fourth quarter, 84 percent CIOs are very or somewhat confident, up three points from the third quarter. 54% technology executives are optimistic about their firms' likelihood of investing in IT projects by the end of the last year.

3. In IT hiring field, the most demanded area is still Network administration skills.
Networking remain as the most challenging to find skilled professionals. Cited by 21 percent of executives, followed by information security and help desk/technical support, each with 13 percent of the response. For a majority of CIOs (60 percent), the technical skill set most in demand within their IT departments is network administration. Database management ranked second, with 54 percent of the response, followed by Windows administration (Server 2000/2003/2008) and desktop support, each with 51 percent of the response.

4. Expected Growth field.
In the transportation sector, CIOs forecast a net 8 percent increase in hiring. 9% executives plan to expand their IT departments while 1% forecast staff cutbacks. desktop support, database management and website development skills are mostly demanded by companies in this area.

In business services sector, the hiring expectation is higher than above the national average. 14% CIOs expect to hire staff and 8% anticipate personnel reductions, for a net 6 percent increase.

Hannah Santhanam is the senior engineer from CertIdea IT Certification study material provider and can be reached at support@certidea.com.