| April 2007 |
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| In a government town, the state is always on the hunt for IT contractors |
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| If you're considering job hunting in the capital city of the nation's largest state, one obvious question comes immediately to mind: Should I look for a government job? It's worth a look. "IT employment with the state in Sacramento is very good," says Erik Fleischman, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies. "There is always a demand for consultants as the State of California employs roughly 5,000 IT contractors throughout the state. The skills in demand most are SQL server, .NET, and a lot of project manager openings. In those PM roles, having consultants with a PMP certification is a huge differentiator, as recruiters are experiencing a huge shortage of these candidates."
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Of course, contract work has huge downsides. Independent software engineer Paul Wilton expresses great frustration as he watches solid full-time positions get replaced by 30-, 60-, and 90-day contracts that always end before any benefits kick in. And with recruiters often doing the searching and taking a cut, the hourly rate left over for the worker ends up being trimmed. "I have 15 years of experience, a library stacked to the ceiling, and the certifications that the recruiters seem to be searching for, and yet sometimes by the time the offer comes in, it's down to $20 per hour, which is crazy," Wilton says. "Government agencies in particular are notorious for contracting out the problems they can't solve while safeguarding their own security. As soon as we contractors solve the problem, we get taken out to lunch and then we're shown the door." Though Wilton doesn't see any easy solutions to the dilemma, he's a proponent of the managed services model, in which the contractor takes control of entire systems, thereby guaranteeing some level of job security and consistency over time. "That's the way we protect ourselves and our mortgages," he says.
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| Companies are now looking to use specialized contract workers to fill their open positions that would have traditionally been staffed by full-time workers |
| - Spherion Employment Report |
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And what about the private sector? "The Sacramento IT market has been doing well so far in 2007," says Fleischman. "We’ve seen a substantial uptick in contract opportunities in .Net, Java, and quality assurance. We’ve seen roughly 20% more .Net positions and 25% more Java spots since Q1 last year. Interestingly, some of these positions have been with new companies that have been moving here from different locations such as San Francisco due to their high rents."
It sounds like there's a lot of contract work to be had, even if full-time positions are more rare. The most recent Spherion Employment Report for the entire state echoes Wilton's experience, saying, "We’ve started to notice a new hiring trend which emphasizes the talent shortages that employers are currently facing. Companies are now looking to use specialized contract workers to fill their open positions that would have traditionally been staffed by full-time workers."
But there is some hiring for full-time positions going on. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose second-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that 18% of Sacramento CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey finds that from April to June, 45% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, according to Manpower spokesperson Mike Dourgarian. “Sacramento employers expect significantly more favorable hiring conditions than in the first quarter when 27% of the companies interviewed intended to add staff."
At Dice, Sacramento job listings are flat, but flat in a good way. After a great surge last fall, the number of job listings are holding steady at its newly high level. Time will tell if they can remain at that level into the summer months.
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