IT staff, budgets and effectiveness up this year

If you're in IT these days, life is looking pretty good, at least according to the latest IT Spending, Staffing and Technology Survey from Computer Economics. The survey finds that just about everything is going up for IT execs, including staffing, budgets, and IT effectiveness (as measured in spend-per-user). Surprising to many is the fact that IT budgets are up across the board--by five percent and felt in almost every industry in every sector. In terms of where the money is being spent, the fastest growing areas are personnel, application software and outsourcing; spending per desktop is currently falling. Outsourcing continues to garner mush of the money. Some 62 percent of companies outsource at least some of their application development work. Experienced staff are still are still in high demand at most companies and in most industries (which may explain why salaries are also on the rise). Fifty-two percent of the 200 companies surveyed said they were adding staff, while only 16 percent anticipated layoffs.

For more on the most recent trends:
- read the details in CIOUpdate. Article
- also, see ComputerWorld's piece on the 12 most
important security skills. Article