Positive Outlook for IT Job Growth in 2015
While it appears sluggish in some places, the US economy is chugging along, with the US Department of Labor reporting the October unemployment rate down to 5.8% and an average of more than 200,000 jobs created every month in 2014. The industry trade group TechServe Alliance identified that IT hiring grew by 7,800 jobs in October, compared with a gain of 6,900 jobs in September.
And the Wall Street Journal previewed a soon-to-be-released study from Michigan State University’s College Employment Research Institute that anticipates hiring for those with Bachelor’s Degrees to increase by 16% by the end of this school year. Phil Gardner, director of the MSU program and the author of the report, told the Journal that he expects to see “a couple years of aggressive hiring” for college grads due largely from pent-up demand due to the recession, increased turnover and continued corporate growth.
That’s good news for everyone, but especially for IT professionals looking to change jobs or enter the market altogether.
In its annual survey of IT executives, Computerworld found that 24% of companies plan to add more IT employees in the year ahead, and 43% of respondents said they expect their IT budgets to increase in the next year, up from 36% in last year’s study. The areas most expected to find increases are in security technologies; cloud computing; business analytics; application development, upgrades or replacement; and wireless/mobile.
So what are the specific skills IT companies are looking for? According to Computerworld, these are the top 10:
- Programming/application development
- Project management
- Help desk/technical support
- Security/compliance governance
- Web development
- Database administration
- Business intelligence/analytics
- Mobile applications and device management
- Networking
- Big data
Look for IT job growth to continue, as Kilplinger’s Economic Outlooks for November anticipates solid economic momentum throughout 2015.
