As of the first of the month, there were 89,680 jobs open in the tech field in the United States, and the unemployment rate for tech pros was 4.2 percent, according to the latest Dice Report. The recruiting climate appears "less urgent" (Dice's words) now than it did at the beginning of the year, but more resumes are being viewed on the employment site than ever before. In other words, it looks like there's a continuing strong demand for skilled IT workers (good for IT pros), but companies aren't in desperate straits to hire (good for companies).

One interesting finding in the November report from Dice is a slight discrepancy between the positions that companies are looking to fill and the positions IT pros wish to have. In the third quarter this year, the top requests from hiring managers were Java developer, .NET developer, business analyst, Sharepoint developer and project manager. Job seekers were interested in business analyst, project manager and software developer positions, but they were also looking for network engineer and systems admin jobs.

The New York/New Jersey and Washington, D.C./Baltimore regions lead the pack in open tech jobs, with Silicon Valley coming in third. The highest growth in tech jobs has taken place in Atlanta, where there are 35 percent more positions available now than a year ago. Dallas, Boston and Chicago each have seen more than 20 percent growth in tech jobs in the same time period.

Demand for employees who know their way around "big data" is poised for major growth, according to a report from McKinsey. Before long, there will be 1.5 million openings for analysts and managers with big data skills. If you think your company will be offering some of those jobs, it might make sense to start looking to fill them soon. McKinsey said demand could soon surpass supply by as much as 60 percent. - Caron