Good news for IT workers: Companies plan to hire in 2013
Sixty-four percent of technology-focused managers say they’ll be looking for help early next year.
Technology-focused hiring managers and recruiters say they are likely to hire new tech professionals in the first six months of 2013. But one area has the potential to stall some of those hiring efforts: the inability to find qualified professionals to fill open IT positions.
A new IT hiring survey of more than 1,000 technology-focused hiring managers and recruiters by Dice.com found that 64 percent of respondents say their companies or clients will add new IT workers starting in January. That’s brighter news than in other career fields, where just 47 percent anticipate adding staff early in 2013, according to a similar Dice study.
At the same time, the majority of respondents (55 percent) noted that the time to fill open positions has either slightly or substantially lengthened over the past year, with many of those respondents (47 percent) saying the reason is because they’re unable to find qualified professionals. Other respondents attributed delays to more discerning hiring managers waiting for the perfect match (33 percent) or caution over the economy (13 percent).
The good news is that most IT workers are staying put, with 70 percent of hiring managers and recruiters saying voluntary departures have not increased in 2012. Forty-six percent also said they have seen an increase in the number of candidates applying for open positions, as compared to six months ago. And many of those IT job candidates are now asking for more money compared to six months ago, according to 53 percent of respondents, Dice found.
In addition to IT candidates demanding higher salaries, the survey found other factors that indicate the competition for IT professionals continues to be fierce. More than one-third (39 percent) of respondents said they are seeing more counteroffers than the previous six months.
“Those factors combined appear to be impacting recruiting, with 28 percent of hiring professionals noting they’ve experienced an increase in technology professionals rejecting job offers in the last six months,” the report states.