IT hiring jumps in January

There's some good news out there on the IT job market, and it's about time. January 2010 was one of the best month-to-month gains since the recession took hold in late 2008, according to the TechServe Alliance.

IT employment in the United States jumped by nearly 13,000 jobs in January. And that follows a prolonged period of pain that reduced IT employment by 200,000 jobs, the Alexandria, Va.-based IT services industry group said.

We still don't know exactly where the tech job market is going since it peaked in November 2008 with 4 million jobs. But the alliance described the latest job numbers as "better than incremental." It added that "signs are encouraging that businesses demand for IT professionals and services is growing."

Even so, you probably know an IT person still unemployed and you may be one of them.

There are other sobering numbers: The IEEE-USA, part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., said last week that the number of working computer professionals in the United States dropped by 198,000 during 2009, according to its analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

A more positive barometer of tech jobs available can be read on Dice, a technology jobs board. There were nearly 58,000 jobs posted this week; as of Jan. 4, it had nearly 49,000 jobs posted.

We've been saying for a while now that the tea leaves show the recession is ending, and that's good news for the IT field. There are a few sunny spots, but we are still waiting for full-blown growth and an end to the uncertainty that comes with these tough times.

For more on IT job growth:
- see this Computerworld article

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