Healthy Hiring Outlook

Information technology hiring in the private sector is projected to increase in early 2011, according to a new report by Robert Half.

The Robert Half Professional Employment Report, which is based in part on interviews with more than 1,400 chief information officers, found that 84 percent of executives expect no change in IT hiring in the first quarter of 2011. Eleven percent of executives plan to increase their IT hiring in the first quarter of 2011, however, while 3 percent plan to decrease IT hiring. The net 8 percent increase in anticipated hiring is five points above the previous quarter's forecast and three points above the national average projected for all professions, Half noted.

In addition, the survey shows that the federal government is not the only sector faced with the challenge of finding skilled IT professionals. Among the four career fields surveyed for the report - accounting and finance, advertising and marketing, technology and legal - technology executives indicated the greatest challenge in finding skilled IT professionals, with 54 percent indicating it was "very challenging" and 51 percent noting it was "somewhat challenging."

CIOs also noted that the most in-demand positions in 2011 will be network administrators, Windows administrators, and help desk and desktop support professionals. Health care, professional services and manufacturing will be the top industries for IT jobs, according to the report.

Wired Workplace is a daily look at issues facing the federal information technology workforce. It is written by former Government Executive reporter Brittany Ballenstedt and published on Nextgov.com. Click here to read the latest entries.