Hiring Freezes Hit San Diego, But Firms Seek Applications Developers

January 2009

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Twenty years ago, San Diego's economy was largely dependent on the military and aerospace industries. Since then, the city has become much more diversified with a foothold in the information technology, science and green technology sectors. Companies such as Qualcomm, Cubic Corp., Northrop Grumman, BIOCOM Institute, Science Applications International Corp., Gen-Probe, Pfizer, Invitrogen, Amylin Pharmaceutical Websense, Maxim, SmartDraw, and Bluepoint Solutions are located in this Southern California city.

But, like many places across the country, the IT job market here is starting to feel the pinch of the economic crisis. Recruiters report their clients either have a hiring freeze in place or put job openings in a holding pattern until the economy stabilizes. "We are still seeing orders in IT and engineering but it has slowed," says Mel Katz, executive officer for Manpower in San Diego County. "It is down from last year."

However, Katz says, there are still positions that need to be filled. His company is seeing demand for a wide-range of IT skills including software, systems and applications engineers and programmers. He also sees an uptick for technicians who can install solar panels, as well as healthcare IT workers.

Dan Cordero, regional manager for Sapphire Technologies' San Diego office, says applications developers, especially those working with .NET and Java, are needed. At the same time, he reports the IT job market has slowed and clients are being cautious about hiring. "Some IT managers report that IT will see a possible increase in demand as their companies search for ways to manage cost. Automation will be a key strategy in this area," he says. "However, I will say that most clients are telling me demand will be flat year-on-year."

San Diego has long had a reputation as an IT contracting town. That makes it tough for recruiters to compete with the pay scales offered by companies in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now, the economic downturn is pushing the contracting trend even further. "Some clients have told me that if work needs to get done and they don't have in-house resources, they will turn to contractors," says Cordero. "I see fixed-bid business becoming a little more prevalent."

That is a trend staffing firm Robert Half Technology sees as well. Brian Childers, division director for RHT's San Diego office, says his clients are starting to partition work, turning them into projects, in order to hire consultants or contractors. "Hiring managers are definitely more cautious. They are starting to partition the work and then hire consultants knock out each milestone. We saw that in the fourth quarter of '08 and now we are seeing it in '09," he says.

Childers' clients are looking for bundled skill sets, such as LAMP (Linux, Apache, My Sequel and PHP). Furthermore, San Diego's large base of small- to medium-sized companies is pushing the demand for open source expertise over the more costly .NET technology.

According to the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report for the first quarter of 2009, 57 percent San Diego's CIOs surveyed said database management was one of the technical skill sets in demand within their IT departments. At least 65 percent cited network administration as a sought-after skill, while 52 percent listed wireless network management.

At least 66 percent rated Windows administration as much-needed expertise, while 63 percent cited desktop support and 35 percent named Web development and design. The index also reported a net 3 percent of CIOs in the San Diego area expect to hire information technology professionals in the first quarter of 2009, which is up 1 point from the area's fourth-quarter 2008 forecast. (Nine percent of the executives plan to add staff during the first quarter, while 6 percent expect reductions in personnel.)

At least 16 percent of the CIOs said helpdesk/technical support was the job area experiencing the most growth in their IT departments, while 14 percent said information security is experiencing the most growth.  

Kanani Moser, director of the technology search division at recruiter TriStaff Group, recalls that San Diego began to feel the 2001 recession later than other areas. This time around, companies started to freeze open positions in October. Now, "they're taking a wait-and-see approach," she says.

Last year, San Diego job postings on Dice dipped from 1,435 jobs in January to 1,125 in December. Areas still doing well are IT-related work for online education, healthcare and defense, says Moser.