| April 2007 |
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| The best bets for good IT slots may be outside the oil industry |
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| "Unpredictable." That's how one Houston-area IT expert describes the IT job market in his city. "At present, Houston has a growing economy, but this is influenced by the national and international energy markets, and those markets are always in flux. Houston is somewhat unique in that it has so many companies involved in oil and gas. That's probably the only local industry that can be forecast to grow steadily as petroleum energy resources become more constrained."
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But even if it's hard to make predictions about future hiring in Houston, there are those who are willing to give it a shot. For example, the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which covers all industries, reports that Houston employers expect to hire at a solid pace during the second quarter of 2007. Of the companies interviewed, 27% plan to hire more employees, according to Manpower spokesperson Claudette Hilliard. In the IT arena specifically, IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology finds that 17% of Houston CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter.
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| "We are seeing job listing counts that are slightly ahead of last year’s showing, which was very strong" |
| - William C. Howe, regional manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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What do the Dice numbers say? There's little dramatic change to report. In the first quarter, job listings in Houston rose a negligible 1% as the city bounced back a bit from a weak fourth quarter. A more encouraging sign may be that the 2006 Dice Salary Survey reported that the average IT salary in Houston was up 4.63% over 2005.
William C. Howe, regional manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, said, "We are seeing job listing counts that are slightly ahead of last year’s showing, which was very strong." He adds that it's interesting to see that listings from small to mid-sized companies, and not just petrogiants, have been particularly robust. The lesson there is that job seekers, especially those who are new in town and expect to find the best positions in Big Oil, need to look around a bit more.
Howe is not bullish on the public sector, however. "While there is demand, in our state we've found that from the job seeker’s perspective, the environment of a state agency --both physical and technological -- are often not competitive with those of the private sector. I can say that municipalities have proven to be slightly more accommodating on both counts."
And some final words of advice from that IT expert who laments Houston's unpredictability. "Companies complain about not finding enough qualified staff, yet many are the first to terminate and outsource that very staff during weak quarters. I would suggest that any IT professional moving to the Houston area to make it a priority to build their professional networking skills to discover new work opportunities and not assume that their present position will be permanent." Come to think of it, that's good advice no matter where you live.
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