Smaller tech companies are leading the way to hiring new tech workers ahead of the giants like Microsoft and Google.

Business Week reports that many smaller companies already have large, multiyear contracts from government agencies, partly due to the federal stimulus plan. And others are finding that there is growing demand for ongoing projects, not just the one-time stimulus ones.

"We're hiring people while we can, before the economy swings back and the best tech employees will be hard to find," said Don Vaccaro, CEO of Ticket Software. Vacarro told Business Week that the 220-person company is bulking up now, anticipating the demand coming six months from now.

A new survey from KPMG finds that two-thirds of senior technology executives surveyed think the technology sector will fully recover from the economic crisis ahead of the broader U.S. economy. Nearly half said they expect industry employment to be better next year.

"You're going to see a resurgence happening with smaller, privately owned companies first because the larger publicly traded companies are going to have to report and be accountable to shareholders," Eric Dickerson, partner at executive search firm Kaye/Bassman International told Business Week.

For more on small firms and job recovery:
- check out this Business Week article

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