Glen Chenier, a Dallas-area hardware design consultant and proprietor of a small business called TeeterTotterTreeStuff, misses the good old days before the dot-com bust. "I moved here ten years ago for a big telecom company and saw economic growth up until about 2001," he recalls. "For a while I would get calls at work several times a week from headhunters trying to lure me away to the latest and greatest start-ups. A year later those start-ups were dust and my employer was starting layoffs in droves. I got hit in the third wave, as did my entire project team. Since then I haven't seen much real growth."

But local indicators for the immediate future are a bit more optimistic. Worker confidence across all industries in Dallas is the highest in the nation, according to the latest Hudson Employment Index, which measures workers' attitudes. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, in its fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index, finds a relatively high 17 percent of Dallas-area CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter.

Another indicator, the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, says that from October to December, 17 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, says Manpower spokesperson Maureen Marshall, though bear in mind Manpower tracks all industries, not just tech.

At Dice, the trend for Dallas IT postings has been on a slight rise for a year, with a tiny dip evident at the end of the summer. Currently Dice has about 3,430 listings in Dallas, so opportunities are out there.

Bob Valecka, Dallas branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, says the candidates he's working with have multiple opportunities to choose from and don't stay on the market for long. Java, C++, and .NET developers are in great demand, he says. "The telecom, financial services, travel, and service sectors all have a strong presence here in Dallas," he notes. Chenier sees opportunities in "all the usual software and programming repertoire along with network design, troubleshooting and administration."

With a cost of living below the national average, no personal or corporate income tax and no state property tax, Dallas is attractive to both employers and workers. The largest metro area in Texas, and the fourth largest in the nation, Dallas can offer workers broad industry diversification. According to the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce Index, Dallas commands the highest concentration of technology activity in Texas, with a third of all tech establishments and 40 percent of the state's technology jobs.

As a whole, Texas remains a dynamic technology environment. According to the 2007 AeA Cyberstates report, venture capital in Texas was up 28 percent in 2006, to $304 million. On top of that, Texas remains the second largest cyberstate by tech employment, with a payroll of $33.6 billion. Some 22,500 high-tech establishments are located there. Of the 50 states, Texas is second in engineering services with 81,400 jobs, second in computer and peripheral-equipment manufacturing employment with 21,700 jobs, and second in semiconductor manufacturing employment with 35,100 jobs.

The state also trumpets its Texas Enterprise Fund and Emerging Technology Fund, which helped encourage 363 high-tech acquisitions or expansions in 2006. Like many other states, Texas is putting a strong emphasis on biosciences, where future growth seems assured.

Back in Dallas, the latest high-tech news involves IBM, which is opening a new Innovation Center to help start-up companies, software developers and ISVs create software and hardware application services. IBM hasn't predicted what the direct impact on jobs will be, but says it will "offer R&D expertise ... and also host connection events offering companies unique networking opportunities for business growth."