January 12, 2009
(Internet
Retailer) -- Tech
staffers are suddenly facing a grim hiring outlook after several
years of boom times, according to the latest survey of IT
hiring and salaries by Janco Associates Inc., a consulting
company that focuses on information management. In fact, Janco
reports that hiring demand is the lowest it has been in the 15
years it has conducted the survey.
Not surprisingly,
salaries have taken a dip as well. The mean salary in January
versus January a year ago was down 1.2% for management
information executives at large enterprises ($142,914 versus
$144,645) and 4.4% for executives at medium-sized enterprises
($126,031 versus $131,793). For all IT staff, the mean salary
is down 2% from a year ago ($77,367 versus $79,005).
The outlook will
probably not get better soon, Janco says. “Supply of IT
professionals is at a very high level due to lay-offs, deferred
retirements, and individuals trying to re-enter the IT job
market because they cannot find other jobs or have found they
cannot stay retired with the decrease in value of their
retirement accounts,” the report concludes.
CEO Victor
Janulaitis paints a grim picture of current job market trends.
“The job market for IT professionals is one of the worst that
I have seen since the late 1970s,” he says. “There is a surplus
of IT talent and companies are in a cost-cutting mode. The
dot-com bubble was a cakewalk compared to this job market."
If one is a manager
of Internet systems, his prospects of keeping a job or finding a
new one are better at a medium-sized enterprise than at a large
enterprise, Janco says. That job is characterized as among the
“positions with decreased demand, high lay-off potential, high
outsourcing potential” with large companies, yet just the
opposite with mid-sized enterprises.
“With the Internet,
large enterprises are in maintenance mode,” Janulaitis says.
“Smaller and mid-sized companies are trying to figure out how to
get additional sales, so many of them are turning to the
Internet.”
The following jobs
have increased demand, low lay-off potential and low outsourcing
potential:
Large employers:
- Chief information officer – vice president
- Computer operations shift manager
- Network control analyst
- Network services administrator
- Systems analyst
- Systems programmer
Mid-sized
employers:
-
Manager database
-
Manager Internet systems
-
Database specialist
-
Network control analyst
-
Librarian (PCI-DSS
Specialist)
The following jobs
have decreased demand, high lay-off potential and high
outsourcing potential:
Large employers:
-
Vice president - technical
services
-
Director I.T. planning
-
Manager Internet systems
-
Manager operating system
production
-
Manager systems & programming
-
Manager technical services
-
Voice wireless communications
manager
-
Data entry clerk
-
Database specialist
-
I.T. planning analyst
-
Senior network specialist
Mid-sized
employers:
-
Director I.T. planning
-
Manager data communications
-
Manager operating systems
production
-
Manager technical services
-
Disaster recovery coordinator
-
Network services
administrator
-
Network technician
-
Software engineer
-
Web analyst
