IT Hiring on the Rise, CIOs Report

Robert Half Technology this month released it Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report. The numbers are promising. Seventeen percent of executives surveyed plan to add IT staff in the next three months and 2 percent foresee personnel cutbacks. The net 15 percent increase, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2001, is up three percentage points from the previous quarter's projection. The company surveyed some 1,400 CIOs from U.S. companies with 100 or more employees. Some key findings:

• Firms in the Pacific region plan the strongest hiring activity in the third quarter
• Business growth remains the top reason companies are adding IT staff
• Help desk/end-user support is the job category experiencing the most growth
• CIOs in the wholesale sector are most optimistic about employment gains
• The skills in most demand are Microsoft Windows administration (Server 2000/2003), network administration (Cisco, Nortel) and database management (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2).

For more information:
- check out the release