Hoch's assessment is backed up by Marty Singer, chair of the AeA's Midwest Council and chairman and chief executive of PCTEL. In AeA's Cyberstates 2007 report, he said, "We saw job growth in 2005 for the first time since the bursting of the tech bubble. We saw venture capital investments rise 33 percent in 2006 - the second straight annual increase. To maintain this momentum, we need greater attention to attracting highly specialized workers from around the world."

Illinois as a whole grabbed $392 million of venture capital in 2006 and expects a higher total this year. The state remains a relatively strong center of tech manufacturing, ranking fourth by tech industry employment in four manufacturing sectors: measuring and control instruments, electronic components, communications equipment, and consumer electronics. Cyberstates also reports that Illinois has seen its largest job gains in computer systems design and related sectors, and engineering services.

Local IT recruiter Greythorn recently published its own analysis of the Chicago market, finding that "Chicago has enjoyed healthy, but sensible, growth over the past few years, and there is now a stream of private equity money heading to the city as VC firms seek out the next unsaturated market in which to invest. And Chicago's local government is very active in promoting the growth of the economy through technology."

In fact, 13 percent of Chicago CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter, according to IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, in its fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index. In addition, says Shannon Byrnes, Chicago branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, "there is a steady flow of permanent or full-time positions open in the Chicago market while contract opportunities seem to have stalled during a time where most companies are going through their budget planning season."

Byrnes adds that the hottest skills sets in demand are Java, J2EE, SOA, Web services, Oracle, Unix, ITIL, and Peoplesoft technologies. "These have been growing over the past nine months and don't show any signs of slowing down."

Out in the trenches, one of Chicago's largest private companies - pharmaceutical firm Abbott Laboratories - had 36 recent IT-related jobs in its listings, with spots for experts in Siebel, SAP, SAS, Unix, project management and database architecture.

Across all industries, Chicago metro area employers expect to hire at a steady
pace during the fourth quarter, according to the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. From October to December, 29 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, says Manpower spokesperson Anne Edmunds.

At Dice, the number of IT job postings for Chicago has been increasing throughout the year with the exception of a slight drop at the end of the summer. For the third quarter, listings were up 3 percent. There are more than 4,400 listings currently available, so job hunters have some good opportunities to explore.

As Sapphire's Byrnes explains, "Chicago is the city to be in for cutting-edge technology opportunities. You have almost every Fortune 1000 company represented here, so technologists will have the chance to work on the latest and greatest projects in the country. I am very optimistic for 2008."