| October 2006 |
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| Technology is seen as an engine of regional development |
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| It's the seventh most wired city in America (Forbes.com) and the ninth smartest (U.S. Census Bureau), and when it comes to the weather, most locals would say it's number one. San Diego has a lot going for it, and job hunters will be happy to note that the IT sector continues to thrive.
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IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that 12% of San Diego CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is even more optimistic, finding that in the fourth quarter, a strong 44% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, according to Manpower spokesperson Phil Blair. “Employers have slightly more positive hiring intentions than they did a year ago, when 35% of companies surveyed thought employment increases were likely and 6% intended to cut back,” said Blair.
Brian David Smith, a software engineer and Ph.D. candidate, has spent 20 years working in the San Diego IT arena and is an expert in its dynamics. He said to keep an eye on the defense and consumer product development industries. "Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon provide IT careers in defense, and many smaller companies pick up $5 to $10 million military contracts."
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| 12% of San Diego CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. |
| - Robert Half Technology's fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index |
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But as in other cities, Smith sees in San Diego a trend toward short-term IT contracts rather than full-time employment. "Here's the deal with San Diego. Especially for IT jobs, there are three levels: management, technical, and 'less than technical.' Certification or vocation training skill sets are the key to finding software engineering work in San Diego. Employers hire by the project. The employer develops a project on paper. Then the employer hires a handful of software engineers with specific skills that exactly fit the project. Once the project is finished, the employer discharges all but a maintenance engineer."
Still, new jobs are going to be created. The San Diego Workforce Partnership 2006 Occupational Outlook Report said that the Gross Regional Product of the San Diego region is forecast to increase to $155 billion in 2006, up nearly 7% from 2005. At the same time, the unemployment rate is remaining relatively low--around 4.2%--and 18,000 to 20,000 new jobs will have been created by the end of the year.
The Partnership said to look for jobs in computer security, where employers report it “very difficult” finding qualified, experienced applicants, and in software engineering, where employers report it “moderately difficult” finding experienced applicants. Another hint for IT job hunters: the top six industry clusters in the city are biotech, defense manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, financial services, software, and telecom.
It's a good time to be job hunting in San Diego. After an especially powerful first quarter, San Diego's Dice job listings have continued to increase over the course of the year and are up a healthy 5% from the second to the third quarter. Job seekers currently have 1,544 listings to explore.
"San Diego is not only a great place to work, it's a great place to live," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. "The quality of life and the promise of good jobs are both attracting increasingly large waves of new workers."
If you would like to be interviewed for the next Dice market report, or if you have comments about this article, please contact us at feedback@dice.com.
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| Dice job postings in San Diego are up 29% since Jan. |
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