Philadelphia's business boosters sense a bit of a problem in the city's tech environment - though they might call it "an exciting challenge." At a May State of the Region breakfast sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and reported by Phillyburbs.com, some analysts contended the area lacks an entrepreneurial spirit. "We have all of the ingredients to have the most successful region in the country," said Richard Caruso, chairman of Integra LifeSciences Corp. in Plainsboro, N.J. "We're lacking the recipe." Added Christopher Coons, executive of nearby New Castle County, Del.: "We need to do more to encourage and celebrate entrepreneurship."

Businesspeople see a disconnect between the region's outstanding academic institutions - most notably the University of Pennsylvania - and the growth of startup businesses, especially in the biotech arena. Future tech job growth could depend on a new effort to fund business ideas coming out of academia.

As for job growth, the number of Philadelphia job listings on Dice has been rising steadily since last year, regaining the significant ground lost in 2006. Today the site shows more than 3,200 available postings. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, in its fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index, found that 11 percent of Philly-area CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter,

"The employment climate in the Greater Philadelphia area is strong," says Joseph Santora, area manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies. "We have seen some of the major players in Philly, Delaware and South Jersey make strategic moves in their specific industries that have put them in a position for steady growth in IT headcount for the next 12-18 months." Like Dice, Robert Half has seen a steady increase in job listings every quarter in 2007.

Santora calls the IT market diverse but points to current sweet spots: infrastructure engineers, project managers, business analysts, QA testers and Web developers. The region is strong in a number of industries, he says, including telecom, health care, financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance, hospitality and energy. "Some IT professionals I speak with around the country feel because Philly doesn't have a large number of software development companies, it's not a great place to work in IT. These people don't know that companies such as Merck, Wyeth, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), Verizon, Aramark, Sunoco, Campbell's Soup, Cigna, Aetna and Bank of America have major IT operations locally."

Lesser known but notably fast-growing companies in the area include I-trax Inc., ViroPharma Inc., Gestalt, AdminServer Inc. and InfoLogix Inc. According to Fortune magazine, InterDigital Communications in King of Prussia is the country's fourth fastest-growing tech firm.

As a whole, Pennsylvania employs 203,800 tech workers according to AeA's 2007 Cyberstates report. Pennsylvania's fastest growth is in R&D and testing labs (up 3,700 jobs in 2005). Venture capital investments rose 65 percent last year. Those stats may indicate the move toward more start-ups and entrepreneurship is on and will lead to new job creation in 2008.