| January 2007 |
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| IT experts should look to pharmaceutical and healthcare industries |
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| Philadelphia resident Joseph Santora, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, had plenty of positive things to say about the city in which he works. "Once it was focused primarily on manufacturing, but now the Greater Philadelphia area’s business climate has grown to become extremely diverse,” said Santora. There's a high concentration of pharmaceutical and healthcare businesses here, and the region boasts the sixth largest information technology sector in the country."
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Does that mean Philly is a good place for the IT expert to look for work? Yes, said Santora. "We have seen a healthy demand for IT professionals in each of those vertical markets. With a wide range of industries to choose from and a robust job market, the greater Philadelphia area is a very attractive region for job seekers." He targeted project managers, business analysts, testers, applications engineers, and infrastructure engineers as the types of experts most in demand.
Software engineer Steve Rosen, has been working in Philadelphia for 20 years both full time and as a contractor for many area businesses. He gets a steady stream of interviews and contracts from his Dice listings. “The need for solid IT people has been outstanding in the last couple of years,” said Rosen. “Companies have invested and relied heavily on technology and the need for good people with solid skills to both manage and advance this technology has grown steadily.” Rosen listed financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and consumer businesses as industries he perceives as hot.
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| "The region boasts the sixth largest information technology sector in the country" |
| - Joseph Santora, branch manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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But it will be interesting to see just how many IT specialists who are looking for jobs get placed in the perfect positions in the first quarter. Philadelphia-area employers expect to hire at a very sluggish pace through March according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. Only 17% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, although there are bright spots in finance, real estate, education, and, as Rosen mentioned, insurance. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose first-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that 18% of Philadelphia CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter, a respectable percentage but one that falls short of many other metro areas and has been higher in recent quarters.
At Dice, Philadelphia job listings were down in the fourth quarter after holding steady for most of 2006. "The Philadelphia IT job market looked soft at the end of the year," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. "Job seekers may have to take some time to find the best fit as the New Year gets underway."
As for salaries, Philadelphia is holding on if not exactly thriving in the current climate. In the 2006 Dice Salary Survey, the average IT salary in Philadelphia was found to be $72,786. That's up 1.26% from 2005 but slightly short of the national average of $73,308 (which is up 5.18%) and far lower than the nearby cities of New York ($80,006) and Baltimore/Washington ($79,911). Philly does, however, have a much lower cost of living than the Big Apple.
Sapphire's Santora described a "candidate-driven market" and said that the city is welcoming. "Those interested in relocating to the Philly area will find a community that is eager to support incoming talent. Organizations such as the Young Professionals Network provide an insider's view of the Greater Philadelphia business community and host a schedule of networking events,” said Santora. “And Workforce Philadelphia 2.0, Select Greater Philadelphia, and the CEO Council for Growth work both individually and together to help businesses that are looking to expand or to establish a presence in the Greater Philadelphia area." It sounds like teamwork is one key to a healthy tech sector.
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