The forecast for IT hiring next year is mixed, particularly if you look at hiring trends in the United States. A survey conducted by Monster.com for the recruitment company Technisource last week found that most HR managers plan to hire IT workers in 2011, but the majority don't expect to hire a whole lot of them. Fifty-six percent said they'll take on fewer than 10, and 37 percent say they expect to hire between 11 and 50 new IT workers.     

The Technisource-Monster.com survey findings appear fairly consistent with the latest hiring index from Robert Half Technology, which is based on interviews with CIOs. Only 3 percent of the CIOs queried said that they expect reductions in the IT staff in the first three months of 2011. Further good news: An overall increase of 8 percent in anticipated hiring is the highest projection in a year, the company said. 

The latest Robert Half forecast differs from the Technisource forecast in projecting which IT jobs will be in greatest demand, however.  According to the recruitment firm's research, most companies expecting to hire tech workers next year need to fill jobs in applications, project management and infrastructure. According to the Robert Half group, network administration continues to be the area of greatest IT demand.

Looking at projected hiring across all areas of expertise, Robert Half found in November that five IT-oriented positions show considerable promise. ERP technical developer, data modeler, mobile applications designer/developer, user experience designer and business intelligence analyst join several finance and legal positions in the top 11 jobs for 2011. CIOs might take note that what these jobs have in common is that they help companies improve profits, efficiency and the customer experience. 

In general, business managers seem to be responding with cautious optimism about their companies' prospects for growth next year. The anticipated growth will not necessarily translate to added jobs in the United States, however. Earlier this month, The Hackett Group predicted that the United States and Europe will lose more than 1.3 million jobs by 2014, from a combination of offshoring and productivity improvements. 

Things could be worse for U.S. IT workers, however. While growth in IT offshoring appears to be reaching a plateau, the rate of corporate finance jobs lost to offshoring is expected to grow 20 percent annually, according to The Hackett Group. In 2014, for the first time, the finance department will lose more jobs than the IT department to providers offshore. - Caron