| January 2007 |
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| Dice listings rose 26% in the fourth quarter |
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Various optimistic worker confidence surveys and a falling unemployment rate (from 5.2% in July to 4.4% in October) suggest that things are looking good for IT workers in the Inland Empire.
In fact, listings for the region at Dice rose 26% in the fourth quarter and were up from 12 months ago as well. "San Bernardino has a robust tech economy," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. "We're predicting a continuing rise in the number of good IT positions."
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Though Dice's annual Salary Survey doesn't break out the Inland Empire as distinct from other nearby regions, average IT salaries in LA and San Diego both rose dramatically in 2006 (7.67% and 10.07% respectively), so it's a good climate throughout Southern California, salarywise.
Dan Cordero, regional manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, says IT job hunters should focus on new media, telecom, financial services, local government, medical devices, and healthcare. The job skills most in demand: .NET developers, infrastructure experts, SQL server database developers and DBAs, QA, telecom engineers, project managers, systems administrators, business analysts, Unix administrators, SAP, Java developers, security experts, Oracle developers, and DBAs.
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| "The defense space is seeing strong demand" |
| - Dan Cordero, branch manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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"The defense space is seeing strong demand," said Cordero. "Most of my clients are forecasting a need for increased staff in 2007. Some that have projects that are government or defense-funded don’t expect a downturn in 2007, but looking forward a few years, they are seeking diversification in their product lines to hedge against an inevitable downturn in government spending."
Cordero added, "I would say most of the demand we see is from medium to large-sized organizations. Some of the medium-sized local clients are part of larger organizations, wholly owned subsidiaries or member companies of larger organizations."
Another IT recruiter, Robert Half Technology, recently published a survey which found that 77% of CIOs ranked Windows administration as the skill set most in demand at their IT sites, followed by 71% who said workers with network administration skills are in demand. The CIOs, who were given the chance to list multiple responses, ranked database management in third place.
Job hunters may also want to keep an eye on institutions of higher education as universities compete for $95 million in initiatives that are part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Governor's Research and Innovation Initiative, which he announced at the end of December. Biotech, petascale computers, and alternative energy research are all in the mix. Said Schwarzenegger, "With some of the world's finest universities and research institutions, the Golden State has more scientists, engineers and researchers and invests more on research and development than any other state. As a leader in developing new technologies, California will reap tremendous rewards for our economy and environment from this investment in our innovation infrastructure."
And a few final hints from Sapphire recruiter Cordero: ".NET developers and Java developers are in especially short supply, so investing in training or taking on positions that expose professionals to these technologies -- even if it means taking a pay cut -- are good long-term career moves. And data warehousing and security are also good fields to pursue."
If you would like to be interviewed for the next Dice market report, or if you have comments about this article, please contact us at feedback@dice.com.
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| Dice job postings in San Bernardino are up 69% since Jan. |
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