| April 2007 |
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Short-term hiring patterns are bumpy, but overall, growth continues |
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Hotter and hotter. That’s the word from the desert Southwest as Phoenix, which is enjoying an incredibly low 3.3% unemployment rate, looks forward to another strong quarter in the IT job market. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose second-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that an amazing 25% of Phoenix CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter, while only 4% expect to reduce staff, making it a tie between Phoenix and Detroit for the number one ranking of most optimistic CIOs in the country this quarter. |
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 The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey seconds the motion, finding that from April to June, 44% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, according to Manpower spokesperson Jeff Schander. “Phoenix employers expect significantly more favorable hiring conditions than in the first quarter, when 25% of the companies interviewed intended to add staff," he says.
In what fields will job hunters find the most opportunity? "We have seen a steady demand for software developers, .NET & Java, project managers, business analysts, SAP professionals, and Oracle developers and administrators," says Jason Miller, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies. "Demand has been gradually increasing throughout the quarter, and at the current point I'd say that it’s fairly strong." Miller adds that the state government of Arizona is struggling to build out technological infrastructure to keep up with its rapidly growing population. In the public sector, he says, "the whole gamut of skills are in demand." |
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| "We have seen a steady demand for software developers, .NET & Java, project managers, business analysts, SAP professionals, and Oracle developers and administrators" |
| - Jason Miller, branch manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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Of course, one of the most popular places to work anywhere in the country these days is at red-hot Google, and the powerful company's outpost on the campus of Arizona State University at Tempe, first opened last year, is still growing. "We are hiring every day. We are interviewing every day," Douglas Merrill, vice president of engineering, recently told The Arizona Republic. Google's job listings for Tempe show a range of IT jobs currently available, including positions in network engineering, security and systems administration.
In Phoenix, city officials seem to be keeping up as well. In the Center for Digital Government's 2006 Digital Cities Survey, Phoenix tied for tenth place among all cities with populations over 250,000 as one of the Digital Cities Top Ten cities that use digital technologies to better serve their citizens and streamline operations. It's a good indicator of the high-tech attitudes that keep Phoenix on the forefront of the IT job market.
The number of Phoenix job listings at Dice jumped up and down throughout 2006 and hasn't quite calmed down yet. Jobs were up in January, down in February, and steady in March, leaving total listings up just 1% for the quarter. And those jobs will pay well. According to the 2006 Dice Salary Survey, the average IT salary in Phoenix rose an impressive 7.07% in 2006 to $74,976, outstripping cost of living increases in the area and making Phoenix all the more attractive to IT job hunters.
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