IT job market study shows slow, steady road to recovery

A recent survey by research firm Gartner has revealed that many CIOs and human resources (HR) leaders continue to be required to do more with less budget, and that employee headcount has not returned to pre-recession levels.

The study showed that the recovery in jobs or an increase in headcount during the past 12 months was in short-term, with temporary contractor positions outstripping permanent staff positions.

According to the survey of 358 US-based organizations, the median rate of increase in IT headcount was 6.3 percent across all respondents. About 28 percent of those surveyed reported no change in IT head count for the period of March 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010.

“These survey results continue to show a slow job market with organizations being cautious about increasing staff levels, leading to fewer new hires and more vacancies left unfilled,” said Lily Mok, vice president at Gartner.

“While we expect hiring activities to slowly pick up over the next 12 to 18 months as market conditions improve, we think it is unlikely that many IT organizations will return to their pre-recession staffing levels.”

The level of difficulty in filling job vacancies is a good indicator of the strength of the employment market, Gartner said. The survey showed a weaker job market than a year ago, as reflected in fewer organizations reporting significant difficulty in filling vacancies during the last 12-month period.

The overall average number of months to fill selected jobs also dropped, from 3.3 months in the 2009 study to 2.8 months this year, Gartner said.

“Despite the fact that there was some level of ease in hiring during the last 12 months, IT organizations continued to face challenges in finding quality candidates for a number of jobs,” said Mok. “Even though there may be more people available to hire in the market, they don’t necessarily have the right skills for the available jobs.” –Newsbytes Philippines