Tech Job Market Expected To Stay Strong In 2007

The job market for IT professionals looks strong going into the new year, picking up where 2006 leaves off. Hiring plans for the first quarter are the strongest they've been in five years, according to a survey of 1,400 CIOs by staffing firm Robert Half Technology. Sixteen percent of CIOs say they'll be hiring in the quarter, while only 2% anticipate cutbacks. The most sought-after tech pros are those with business savvy and industry expertise. Cigna is looking for enterprise architects and people who understand service-oriented architectures, as well as those with relationship management and collaboration skills, says senior HR director Matt Hintz. The health insurer also seeks IT people with knowledge about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. "The labor market is tight," Hintz says. "There's a war for talent, particularly in the architecture space." Hiring firms have told Hintz that the ranks of SOA specialists "are only in the hundreds." Cigna expects to hire 100 to 150 technologists in 2007, with an emphasis on specialized skills rather than software development. With attrition, the size of the company's IT department will remain about the same. Tech staffing and outsourcing firm Sapphire is getting requests for seasoned project managers, particularly those with ERP experience. They tend to have a knack for bridging "the gap between users and technologists," especially as companies look for ways to differentiate their Web sites or improve their supply chains, says Mark Eldridge, Sapphire's chief operating officer. Mattress maker Select Comfort is looking to hire IT architects and database pros with expertise in SAP implementations. That's because Select Comfort is kicking off an SAP project to replace a legacy ERP system, says senior VP and CIO Ernie Park, who joined the company in May after five years as Maytag's CIO. Compensation has been rising over the last couple of years for IT professionals, and Park expects the trend to continue. While the average pay increase has been 4% to 5%, top performers could see jumps of 8% to 10%, he says. At Cigna, pay increases for IT staff are closely tied to performance, with rewards for strong collaboration skills. The company is evaluating pay increases for next year; the trend over the last 18 months has been modest growth for most positions but "exponential growth" for specialized and hard-to-find skills, such as enterprise architects, Hintz says. KNOW THE BUSINESSBusiness know-how is as important as ever for CIO candidates, according to Kirsten Smith, partner at executive recruitment firm Battalia Winston International. Clients are looking for CIOs with experience in "complex business and global issues, like supply chains and pricing issues," says Smith. They're less interested in "technical" CIOs--those who rose through the technology ranks, she says. Beverly Lieberman, president of executive recruitment firm Halbrecht Lieberman Associates, says desired CIOs have cost-management skills augmented with a focus on customers, products, and service innovation. Select Comfort's Park believes a diverse business background, including his years at Maytag, helped him land the latest job. Park oversaw an SAP implementation at Maytag and led an alliance with Samsung Electronics in which the two companies jointly developed new front-loading washers and dryers. Market researcher IDC predicts Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system will create a "bounce" of 100,000 IT jobs. However, some say that estimate is overblown. "Vista will create the need for new skills and retraining programs," says recruiter Lieberman, but not necessarily a lot of new jobs. IDC's report, released last week, was commissioned by Microsoft. "Those estimates are optimistic," says Park. But he agrees Vista could create demand for newly skilled pros among software and services vendors.