| April 2007 |
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| Job listings at Dice are up this quarter, but job searches can be tough |
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| One frustrated Detroit-area IT expert sums up his current status in a way that may sound familiar to many Michigan job seekers. "I'm currently an engineering systems support administrator, and I found the job through a company. I've been here for 3 1/2 years, and I feel that new opportunities, especially outside of the auto industry, are not very good in Michigan, at least for me. I'm having a challenging time finding new opportunities either in desktop support or systems administration. And salaries seem stagnant. My average increase has been 2% if that, and there seems to be very little opportunity for upward mobility."
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The most recent Detroit-area Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which covers all industries, seems to back him up. Among survey participants, the Detroit economic outlook is one of the weakest in the nation. According to Nezar Khalid, Manpower spokesperson, from April to June, just 18% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees. That's way down from a year ago, when 38% of companies surveyed thought job gains were likely.
Focus more specifically on IT, however, and the picture gets brighter. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose first-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that an impressive 23% of Detroit CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter, the second highest number of any of the cities that Robert Half tracks.
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| "All in all, we expect 2007 to be significantly better in the IT sector than 2006" |
| - Vic Serraiocco, branch manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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And Vic Serraiocco, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, said, "The overall IT employment climate in Michigan is very good. Our business is up almost 20% year over year. Unemployment claims have not risen in several months, and in a recent survey conducted by a local Chamber of Commerce, 57% of IT executives stated that they expect to add headcount in 2007,” said Serraiocco. “At the same time, contract and contract-to -hire engagements are up significantly. All in all, we expect 2007 to be significantly better in the IT sector than 2006."
That's certainly encouraging, as is the finding from The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's 2007 State New Economy Index that when it comes to the number of high-tech jobs, Michigan is the fastest relative gainer among all the states, moving from 34th place to 20th place since 1999, an indication that Michigan's post-automotive retrenchment has been starting to succeed in recent years.
While the 2006 Dice Salary Survey found that the average IT salary in Detroit, $67,080, is the lowest among the 20 major metro areas that Dice tracks, it was actually up 4.5% from 2005. Take the relatively low cost of living into account, and the numbers look fairly good.
Current Dice numbers are also somewhat upbeat. For the first quarter, job listings were up 9%.
Sapphire's Serraiocco noted that job seekers shouldn't forget to look in the public sector, even if salaries may be lower. "Some of the most in demand skills include project and program management, analysis, system administration and security. As many industries in the region are still trying to gain traction, the public sector has proven to be stable, and government positions tend to offer excellent benefits."
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| Dice job postings in Detroit are up 9% since Dec. |
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