After Tanking In May, IT Job-Confidence Levels Rebound In JuneAfter Tanking In May, IT Job-Confidence Levels Rebound In June
Web development, .Net, and ERP software-upgrade skills are most in demand, survey finds.
After hitting the skids in May, job optimism among IT workers rebounded in June, according to a new report by Hudson, a professional staffing and outsourcing firm that conducts monthly employment confidence surveys.
IT job-confidence levels in June rose to 104.2, up 11 points since sinking to an all-time low of 93.2 in May. Compared with a base score of 100, May had the worst IT job confidence rating since January 2004 when Hudson began its monthly phone interviews with more than 9,000 workers in several sectors, including more than 500 technology professionals.
Nationally, workers across all sectors surveyed by Hudson--which includes health care, manufacturing, financial services, and accounting--were also a bit more optimistic in June. The national index increased 3.1 points to 103 in June.
The higher optimism levels among all workers, including IT pros, was fueled by greater confidence in personal finances, feelings of improved job security and satisfaction, and increased expected hiring.
Vic Velevis, director of Hudson's IT and telecommunications practice, says the IT sector's more significant rebound in June, compared with the national index, is characteristic of the IT profession's "volatility." Based on the steep ups and downs the IT sector recorded in job-confidence scores last year, Velevis says it's pretty clear to him that "IT wears its emotions on its sleeve."
Ongoing fears about outsourcing, concerns about IT budgets, and the dramatic boom and bust of the tech industry in the 1990s and early 2000s has many IT professionals predisposed to roller-coaster optimism levels, he says.
In highest demand right now are professionals with skills in Web development, .Net technology, and upgrading enterprise-resource-planning software such as PeopleSoft, Velevis says. Also, while many companies last year were focused on IT audits related to Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, he says, "now the focus is on remediation work and compliance."
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