The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which covers all industries, found that from January to March, a moderate 21 percent of companies plan to hire more employees, says Manpower Spokesperson Anne Edmunds. Meanwhile, recruiter Robert Half Technology's IT Hiring Index indicates just 9 percent of Chicagoland CIOs plan to hire new staff in the first quarter.
During fourth quarter, the number of Chicago-area job listings on Dice fell for the first time in 2007. Here again, seasonality was at least partially to blame. Listings were down 4 percent to a current total of 4,262. As for salaries, the annual Dice salary survey revealed the average Chicago IT salary stands at $76,407, up 1.7 percent in 2007 and slightly ahead of the national average.
Recently, a couple of hopeful headlines made the news. In September, Opportunity Returns grants were awarded by the governor to four Chicago-based tech firms: American BioOptics, an Evanston-based medical diagnostics company, received $50,000. MicroLink Devices, a Niles semiconductor manufacturing company, also got $50,000. QuesTek Innovations and Advanced Diamond Technologies were in the mix, as well. Job hunters may also want to get familiar with NAVTEQ Corp., a provider of digital map information for automotive navigation systems, which plans to create 350 new full-time jobs over the next five years. Allstate Insurance is boosting its local presence with a new data center in Rochelle, which will come online sometime this year.
Unfortunately, those relatively humble upticks are about the best news of recent months. Chicago IT experts will likely have to wait out the wintertime chill for more hopeful developments in the spring.
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Shannon Byrnes, branch manager of IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies' Chicago office, calls the IT employment climate in Chicago "so-so," in part because of seasonal slowdowns. "Companies in the technology industry are looking strong for 2008, while clients in the banking/financial and insurance industries look to be more conservative in their hiring in the coming year," she says. "With upcoming presidential elections that could change legislation for the insurance industry, many companies in this sector will play it safe until 2009. And with all the sub-prime mortgage lending issues, many companies in the financial industry will reduce the number of technology projects they undertake in 2008."
