IT hiring outlook

A new CareerBuilder survey indicates that IT hiring and compensation is on the uptick for 2011.
CareerBuilder conducted its national annual IT hiring poll among more than 170 IT employers between November 15 and December 2, 2010. The results were that two in five (42 percent) of IT employers plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees this year (this is up from 32 percent who said the same last year).
Here are some other employment trends to follow in 2011, according to the survey:


•Sixty-six percent of those polled said they will increase compensation for their existing staff in 2011. The good news is that 13 percent expect the average increase will be five percent or more. The bad news is that most estimate the average raise will be 3 percent or less.

•One-third (33 percent) state that they currently have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates. Thirteen percent said they will be hiring outside the U.S. for workers to work in their U.S. offices. This is an interesting disconnect: Employers are saying they can’t find qualified workers, but there are a ton of IT pros out of work.

•Nearly half (49 percent) of IT employers are hiring contract or freelance workers in 2011, up from 47 percent in 2010. Forty-six percent of IT employers plan to hire temporary workers on a permanent basis in 2011.

•More than one-third of IT employers (38 percent) voiced concern over worker burnout within their organizations, as heftier workloads and longer hours take their toll on worker morale. Nearly the same amount (34 percent) reported that maintaining productivity levels is one of the top staffing challenges for the new year. The first part of this paragraph sounded kind of nice until you saw the concern was linked to almost the same percentage of employers looking to maintain productivity, didn’t it?

•Forty-four percent of IT employers stated that they will be placing a greater emphasis on social media in 2011.





Original article: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/it-compensation-and-hiring-trends-for-2011/2726
About Toni Bowers



Toni Bowers is an award-winning writer and Head Blogs Editor for TechRepublic.