Georgia's tech industry added 5,934 jobs in 2011, after two years of losses. Today, companies are hiring. Indeed, Atlanta ranked No. 7 among top tech metro areas, Dice said in January. Now a Technology Association of Georgia survey says more than 70 percent of 150 tech decision makers plan to increase hiring in 2012. (At the moment, more than 3,000 positions are posted on Dice in the Atlanta area alone.) TAG President and CEO Tino Mantella told the Savannah Morning News:

We’re trying to keep the growth going.  We talk a lot about recruiting companies into Georgia and that’s good, but very quietly the tech industry grew by 6,000 jobs last year. Organic growth is very important, and we need to do all we can to promote that.

The association's report looks individually at its top sectors: information security, financial technology, communications services, health IT and logistics. It found a change in companies' spending priorities: Mobile/wireless projects displaced security as No. 1 followed by cloud computing; training/certification (which didn't make the top five the previous year); security (now No. 4); and virtualization/data center rationalization. And the area is growing as a nascent hub of Health IT. Medical software firm Streamline Health Solutions recently announced plans to expand in Atlanta, adding about 150 jobs. Salaries, too, are recovering from the recession, with average pay topping $81,000, but remain below the 2007 average of $85,000. Still, the report talks about a reasonable cost of living, compared with other tech centers. Indeed a University of South Florida professor lamented a while back about the tendency of graduates from that area to find better opportunities and pay in Atlanta or Charlotte.