Tech Workers' Mood And Pay On An Upswing, Says SurveyTech Workers' Mood And Pay On An Upswing, Says Survey

Tech and telecom pros were in a better mood about their jobs and personal finances in February, according to a new report by IT staffing and outsourcing firm Hudson.

What's behind the good attitude? Bigger paychecks, for one thing.

Compared to a base score of 100, IT pros last month rated their job confidence at 112.3, up 7.7 points since January, when the mood plummeted 5.2 points from December.

The mood among techies was also considerably brighter than workers across all sectors, who rated their job confidence at 107.1, up 2.9 points in January. Each month, Hudson surveys 9,000 workers across several industries, including more than 400 IT and telecom professionals.

This could be the beginnings of an up and down year for techies, who are prone to volatile outlooks about their jobs? Hudson officials don't think so.

Compared to two years ago, when techies were on a roller-coaster ride with their views about job-security and work, things have settled down. "We've moved out of the dark ages" of the tech job market, said Paul Taylor, a Hudson regional VP. "The IT market is more stable, optimism is high," he said.

In February, more techies said they were expecting their companies to hire, up to 36% from 34% in January. Also, fewer tech pros last month said they were worried about losing their jobs -- only 21% compared to 27% in January. "If you're in an IT department, you're seeing you company adding temp resources, a strong demand for skill sets and strong salaries," he said.

In fact, pay has been "going up dramatically," said Taylor. Pay for Hudson IT contractors and permanent-placement workers is up an average of 5% to 7% this year compared to a year ago, he said.

Fifty-five percent of the survey respondents rated their personal finances favorably in February, compared with 48% in January. Also, 52% said their finances were improving last month, compared to only 47% who said that in January.

Among the hottest talent sought by Hudson's clients are professionals with strong skills in application development, especially Java and .Net, he said. "Quality Java programmers are being demanded by financial services companies as they streamline transaction processes and remove steps to get closer to end users," he said.

And although Hudson conducted its February survey before the Asian stock exchange and Dow Jones Index plummeted several hundred points last week, Taylor said he hasn't seen any after-effect on techies' attitudes since then.