Kathy McNabb, area manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies and Sapphire Government Technologies in Washington, D.C., is at least slightly shaken by what this year's banking crises may do to IT employment. "The national economy is definitely softer than it has been in recent years. With some forecasting - even predicting - a coming recession, it will definitely have an impact on our commercial market," she says. "With several of our largest employers tied to the mortgage industry, it could be a bumpy ride until this current market adjustment works its way out."

Nevertheless, D.C. boasts low unemployment numbers (less than 2 percent for IT workers in the area), and McNabb sees a shortage of qualified candidates relative to the need in the marketplace.

IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology agrees. Its fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index found a remarkable 20 percent of DC-area CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. That's the highest percentage in any of the 30 major metropolitan areas that Robert Half tracks, and it's a very good sign.

The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which covers all industries, agrees. It found 43 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees from October to December, while none expect to reduce their payrolls, says Manpower spokesperson Charles Ray.

Visitors to Dice may be surprised to find that the region has roughly as many available jobs as Silicon Valley. In the third quarter, the number of regional listings was up 4 percent. Today more than 6,700 jobs are listed.

"Computer security and the many skills and abilities that fall within that discipline are very much in demand in this area," says McNabb. "Whether it involves risk assessment, overall security strategy, planning and implementation, or physical design and implementation of tools and procedures, this area of expertise is seeing a strong demand, and market prices for these services have risen dramatically." He points out that while people are rushing to get appropriate certifications, few have hands-on experience.

According to AeA's annual Cyberstates report, D.C.'s largest and fastest growing tech sector is actually computer systems design and related services. "Our nation's capital is a strategic location for innovation," wrote Gregory Poersch, executive director of the AeA Potomac Council. "It ranks first in the country in research and development expenditures per capita and fourth in concentration of technology workers as a percentage of the private sector workforce."

Of course, the public sector is a technology powerhouse in the area. As Sapphire's McNabb explains, "Historically, the D.C. area has been less subject to economic market adjustments due to the federal government. They are and will continue to be the area's largest employer, and when you take into account all the service businesses that reside here in support of the government in general, it leaves a significant employment opportunity that tends to fluctuate less in response to market conditions."

According to Where the Jobs Are: Mission Critical Opportunities for America, a July report from the Partnership for Public Service, the government will hire more than 11,000 IT workers and 8,000 contractors over the next two years. Most of the jobs will be defense-related. As it stands, the DoD has 27,000 technology workers. The Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security and Treasury departments will also be hiring, the report says.