| April 2007 |
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| Job listings are up for the first quarter, as the insurance industry continues to experiment with redeployments |
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| There's no doubt about it: thriving in IT in Hartford means understanding the ups and downs and ins and outs of the city's huge insurance industry, a service industry that has been as eager as any other to downsize, rightsize, economize, and outsource.
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In March, for example, The Hartford Financial Services Group eliminated 63 Connecticut jobs in property-casualty IT operations. The reason: outsourcing. That news came on the heels of a January announcement that The Hartford would lay off 110 data center employees and 280 others would be offered jobs with IBM under a new outsourcing contract. And yet, The Hartford, which has 13,000 employees in the region, also said it was still hiring for some IT jobs and had more than 100 jobs waiting to be filled. And sure enough, a quick search of The Hartford's online job listings at the end of March turned up 105 IT positions in Connecticut in pretty much every IT category.
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| 18% of Harford CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter |
| - Robert Half Technology's second-quarter IT Hiring Index |
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So what to make of all this hubbub? The lesson seems to be that in a city where the service sector rules, it's up to the IT job seeker to spend copious amounts of time tracking activity in the leading industries to get a sense of who's up and who's down. Bill Donegan, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, said, "The first quarter in 2007 got off to a slower start than expected because the market was saturated with candidates due to a large employer laying off close to 1,000 employees. This abundance of talent allowed employers to select their new hires from a larger talent pool, which slowed down the decision-making process." It's vital to stay ahead of these waves of job seekers to find a position quickly.
Looking ahead, IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose second-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that 18% of Hartford CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter, and the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which covers all industries, reports that from April to June, 30% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees. According to Manpower spokesperson Bob Neidermyer, “Central Connecticut employers expect more favorable hiring conditions than in the first quarter, when 21% of the companies interviewed intended to add staff."
Job listings at Dice are on the increase as spring takes hold. Total listings for Hartford were up 14% for the first quarter.
Sapphire's Donegan urges IT job seekers to remember that at a time when the private sector is in turmoil, it can be helpful to put out feelers in the public sector as well. After all, Hartford is Connecticut's state capital. "Employment with state and some local governments is highly sought after in Connecticut because of the lucrative benefit packages that are offered,” said Donegan. “But be aware that state hiring decisions tend to take almost twice as long as most of the other large employers in the area, which can pose a significant challenge. Application developers as well as candidates with functional skills within the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) are in high demand for this sector."
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| Dice job postings in Hartford are up 14% since Dec. |
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