ACM Tech News:  

More IT Jobs, Less Filling of Them
Computerworld (05/01/07) Thibodeau, Patrick

Recent reports on employment trends indicate that IT professionals should find it easier to find a job, but that employers may start having an even more difficult time filling job openings. The Conference Board said that about 4.37 million online job postings were placed in April, a 24 percent increase over the same period a year ago. Of that total, about 323,000 ads were "computer and mathematical" positions, a 15 percent increase over the number of job postings for the same type of positions from the previous year. The Conference Board's Gad Levanon said companies typically do more advertising in the spring to attract new college graduates, but the data showing year-over-year increases could be a signal that the job market is improving, and that increases in online advertising may be an indication of a tight labor supply. Cyberstates 2007, the latest annual report of high-tech employment trends by the American Electronics Association, said that high-tech jobs in the U.S. totaled 5.8 million last year, a 3 percent increase, or about 146,600 more jobs. Foote Partners CEO David Foote said many companies are becoming very specific about the workers they want, requiring new employees to have specific skills and experience, such as security administrators with forensics skills, or storage administrators with storage-area networking experience.