Monday, December 19, 2011

More Than 700 Tech Jobs in Tampa Bay to Fill in 2012

TBTF Jobs Survey: More Than 700 Tech Jobs to Fill in 2012


Friday, December 16, 2011

85 percent of the companies surveyed said they are hiring in the coming year.

Tampa, Fla. (December 16, 2011) – Encouraging news for Tampa Bay’s job market was announced by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum today when it released the results of its job survey. The survey discovered that more than 700 technology jobs will need to be filled in 2012.

"One of Florida’s greatest economic challenges is unemployment and underemployment. We believe that the long term answer to employment and over-all economic growth and stability will be technology related jobs,” said Heather Kenyon, TBTF president and CEO. "By surveying local technology companies we were able to gain a better understanding of some of the challenges related to workforce. Many companies state that finding qualified workers in the region can be challenging. TBTF is dedicated to assisting the technology industry and, to a greater extent, the region’s economy by helping to connect the industry with the needed resources to find, educate and develop the talent they need.”

More than 100 companies completed the survey, and 85 percent of respondents revealed they are hiring right now and through 2012. The positions identified that will need to be filled range from IT services, engineers and architects to sales and marketing. Three of the companies – Blue Rhino Group, Tata Consultancy Services and WellCare – indicated they expect to bring on 100 new hires in 2012. TBTF’s survey aligns with recent national news that tech jobs are the one bright spot in the economy. A recent Business Week article listed the top ten cities with the biggest growth in tech jobs, and Tampa was eighth on the list.

"I am encouraged by the 2012 staffing outlook, and believe it is a great time to be in the IT field,” said John Kuemmel, senior vice president, information technology at Catalina Marketing. "We are seeing an uptick in the level of IT staffing going into 2012. The people we are looking for are concentrated on business intelligence, project managers and Java developers. Our focus for 2012 will continue to be on new product innovation and business process optimization applications.”

About Tampa Bay Technology Forum
Founded in 2000, the Tampa Bay Technology Forum (TBTF) is a non-profit membership association committed to connecting and growing the technology community in Tampa Bay. TBTF’s 300+ member companies represent technology entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, investors, government representatives, researchers and educators. For more information, visit http://www.tbtf.org/.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Higher Salaries, More Jobs for IT Pros in 2012

While the overall employment picture in the United States remains tight, many IT pros can look forward to a more prosperous 2012.

Even with several negative economic indicators nagging workers worried about availability of jobs, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released late last week and a survey out this week by online employment site Dice show that technology professionals have been more isolated than most from market woes.

According to BLS, unemployment only went down a hitch to 8.6 percent from 9.0 percent, while the number of workers who have given up looking for jobs increased by 315,000 unemployed workers last month. The number of long-term unemployed workers without jobs for over 26 weeks continued to make up nearly half of those unemployed today. But in the technology sector, there was some good news.

Though two of the IT-related sectors measured by BLS lost jobs -- Telecommunications and Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services -- two other IT segments saw notable growth. Combined, the Management and Technical Consulting Services and Computer Systems Design and Related Services segments experienced a net gain of nearly 129,800 jobs in the last twelve months.

According to David Foote, CEO of IT analyst and employment research firm Foote Partners, this tracks with his research.

"Among the 2,200 employers who participate as research partners in our industry research, there’s no question that consulting firms and systems integrators are benefitting from these employers’ purchases of managed services and investments in cloud computing as an alternative to acquiring technology skills in house,” Foote says.

IT recruitment firm Dice, which queried nearly 1,200 IT hiring managers and recruiters recently about their plans for 2012, saw more employment going inhouse. Released this week, the data showed that 65 percent of employers will be seeking to hire technology professionals in the first half of 2012. About a quarter of those report that they plan to expand staffs by more than 20 percent during the same time period.

"The tech recruiting market is active, although the pace of improvement has been impacted by broader economic concerns," said Alice Hill, Managing Director of Dice.com. "Many companies are chasing mid-career talent. The elevated economic uncertainty makes it tougher for hiring managers to lure tech professionals into leaving their current position."

This is working to technologists' benefit salary-wise as many companies are luring new recruits from the safety blanket of their current situations with higher pay. Dice found that 42 percent of hiring managers predict that new-hire salaries will rise in 2012.


Source: [CI] channel insider  2011-12-07

By Ericka Chickowski