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Number of people looking for IT jobs jumps 42 percent in Q4

March 25, 2010

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According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, there are 4 skill areas in the IT segment that have been experiencing growing demand in the fourth quarter of 2009. They are SQL Server programming and database management, C# (C sharp) programming and system integration, Microsoft .NET technology and application development and system admin and management on the Linux operating system.

Additionally, the number of job candidates looking for career placements in the IT sector grew by over 41.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

Overall, the Technology Demand and Supply Q4 2009 report, produced for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found that these were the only skill areas where demand actually increased for two consecutive quarters in 2009.

Advertisements for staff with MS SQL Server and SQL database programming skills were the most prominent, with 20,000 advertisements counted in the period. There were 10,600 ads for workers with C# skills, 9,500 for .NET programming and 5,300 for Linux system admin skills.

However, overall demand for nearly all skills actually dropped in the period compared with the 4th quarter of 2008. Only demand for PHP and AJAX skills grew in Q4 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, 17 percent and six percent, respectively.

There were a total of about 82,000 advertised vacancies for IT staff, and 71,000 staff looking for new or additional jobs in Q4 2009, according REC's survey.

In terms of occupation, the highest demand was for system developers in Q4 2009. There were 24,900 vacancies advertised during that period, followed by systems administrator with 4,600 vacancies.

Overall, systems developer was one of six job categories, out of a total of 20, to see an increase in actual demand over two consecutive quarters.

REC's survey further highlighted systems developers, senior systems developers and senior test analysts with C# skills as areas that would be relatively difficult for recruiters over the near term due to skills shortages.

On average, other positions that actually grew slightly in demand included projects manager, senior systems developer, business analyst, PC support analyst and senior test analyst.

Overall demand for web designers with HTML and PHP skills dropped the most compared with Q3 2009, falling more than eighteen percent.

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Source: The Recruitment and Employment Confederation.