Tech job placement firm SilverPoint Technology Staffing surveyed the hiring status and plans of CIOs and directors of software applications and infrastructure between July 20 and Aug. 6. More IT staff are expected to be hired by 21 percent of respondents, and 7 percent expected their IT hiring to decline, with the remaining and largest portion planning no change to their current staff levels.
A little deeper into the numbers, of those planning on new hires, 29 percent were for temporary assignments, SilverPoint reported. Nearly half of those temporary IT hires were due to either budget limitations or because positions were associated with special projects.
In assessing priorities for tech officers, the top responses were work experience (38 percent), new expertise brought to the firm (34 percent) and “how that candidate fits with the organizational culture” (24 percent). In a separate survey question asking talent officers about the areas where applicants were lacking, general IT expertise led the way (58 percent), followed by an absence of desire to stay on top of tech trends (27 percent) and no knowledge of legislation connected to the field (6 percent).
Behind much of the hiring expectations are overall global economic perceptions, the survey authors indicated. Thirty percent of those in the survey expect the economy in general to improve during the year ahead, and 9 percent anticipate an erosion of economic conditions.
Figures released Friday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also showed gains in IT hiring. For the month of August, there were more than 11,000 new jobs filled for computer system design and related services, and approximately 9,000 new hires in management and technical consulting services.
Justin Kern is senior editor at Information Management and can be reached at justin.kern@sourcemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @IMJustinKern.
