Some contracting firms see a promising dynamic at work as CIOs spend money again: While many companies want to upgrade their technology, they need to be cost conscious while they do it. And that's good news.

In Memphis, the local office of Zycron Information Technology Services is hiring as clients turn to tech consultants to reduce costs, says the Memphis Business Journal. "Saying we would double (headcount by adding 50 people) would be a bit much, but we're well on our way," CEO Steven Howard Smith told the newspaper.

Virtualization's had a role to play in this, of course, as businesses jettisoned their own servers in favor of outsourced solutions. While you'd expect large companies to be pursuing such tactics, "you'd be surprised at the number of small- to mid-size companies taking advantage of this as well," said Stephanie Drouillard, Memphis branch manager for Robert Half.

When those servers were jettisoned, so were a lot tech staffers. In turn, that means companies like Zycron aren't having a lot of trouble finding good IT professionals for open slots.

-- Mark Feffer