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Positions that save companies and their customers money, and federal stimulus funding comprise the hottest areas of tech hiring, according to Jack Fellers, regional manager for staffing firm Robert Half Technology.
The tech industry has been hit much less hard than the overall work force, with an unemployment rate of under 5 percent compared to 10.6 percent for all workers, Feller said. Among the most in-demand positions, companies are looking for administrators in the virtualization, cloud computing, software-as-a-service and VoIP sectors — technologies that promise cost savings and increases in efficiency. “The bottom line is, companies are still looking for that return on investment,” he said.
IT security specialists and systems engineers are other hot areas because of the efficiencies they can create for a company, Fellers said. The constant development of new technologies and updating of old ones has also made help-desk workers, a typically entry-level slot, a positon in demand, Fellers said.
While the overall tech sector has seen a 1.3 percent decrease in salaries, Fellers hasn’t seen a rush to stock up on younger, cheaper employees at the expense of more seasoned ones. After a year of layoffs, there are a lot of skilled workers on the market, Fellers said. “If you can bring skills to the table, you’re desirable,” he said.
If a job candidate can add business savvy to technical skills, all the better. Companies are looking for employees who can complete a project and assess its impact on the company’s overall business, Feller said. “They always wanted it, now they’re demanding it,” he said.
Stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has allowed the health-care industry — particularly health-care records technology — one of the hottest areas of hiring in tech, Feller said. Aside from that, no other tech field stands out as a bright spot relative to the others, he said.
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