
IT Hiring Market Report - February 2010 The Dice IT Hiring Market Report is a roundup of news related to technology hiring, compiled from various sources by the Dice Editorial Staff.
.The past year saw 174,629 jobs lost in the technology industry, catapulting up 12.3 percent from the 2008 cuts of 155,570 jobs, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Technology hasn't seen that many layoffs since 2005, and accounted for about 13.2 percent of the total 1.3 million announced job cuts in the U.S. last year. The worst of the downsizing occurred in the first quarter, when the general economy hit bottom, Challenger says. Separately, the TechCrunch reported a total of 350,299 employees laid off as of November 2009, about 20,000 more than Challenger's total for the 2008 and 2009.
.The past year saw 174,629 jobs lost in the technology industry, catapulting up 12.3 percent from the 2008 cuts of 155,570 jobs, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Technology hasn't seen that many layoffs since 2005, and accounted for about 13.2 percent of the total 1.3 million announced job cuts in the U.S. last year. The worst of the downsizing occurred in the first quarter, when the general economy hit bottom, Challenger says. Separately, the TechCrunch reported a total of 350,299 employees laid off as of November 2009, about 20,000 more than Challenger's total for the 2008 and 2009.
- The electronics subsector fared the worst with 65,000 jobs cut - up 55 percent from 2008.
- Telecommunications lost 9.4 percent fewer jobs in 2009.
- The computer industry was unchanged.
- Regionally, the European continent will see the strongest growth. Forrester expects tech spending in Western and Central Europe to rise 11.2 percent on the Euro's strength versus the dollar.
- Canada, Asia Pacific and Latin America should also enjoy solid growth rates - 9.9 percent, 7.8 percent, and 7.7 percent, respectively.
- U.S. IT spending growth is pegged at 6.6 percent.
- Spending in the EMEA - Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa – is expected to grow by 2.4 percent.
- More companies in Denver are looking for technology professionals. In some cases they need help creating cost-efficiencies, in others they're resuming development efforts. So although not everything's rosy, things are looking up.
- Despite some layoff news, recruiters and technology professionals in Dallas believe the IT job market is stabilizing - and cite anecdotal evidence it may even be improving. Companies are restarting IT projects they'd shelved last year, and recruiters say the number of job openings is beginning to creep up.