CIO Insight Survey of CIOs

The November 2004 issue has an interesting survey.

39% of CIOs have increased their staff this past year(the average increase is 15% for organizations taht have enlarged their IT staff). 40% have been at the same level. 77% of respondents incated that the icrease was to keep up with orporate growth.

When asked where they expected their staff size to be two years from now, 59% reported it would be greater. The most optimistic was among CIOs of organizations of $100MM or less in revenue. 45% of the CIOs of $1 billion organizations expected it to be increased).

The average company outsources 14% of its labor. That is expected to increase because nearly 80% of IT executives say that outsourcinghelps their organizations.

Colleges receive mediocre grades for preparing students for work in the "real world". The lack of preparedness covers a range from project management, business acumen and interpersonal skills (more than a 70% vote for each) to leadership (48%) and technical skills (37%).

The best news was in response to this statement:

We expect that recruiting IT staff will be more difficult in the coming year than i the past 12 months.

50% of respondents agreed with this statement.

What does all this mean?

Staffing will increase in 2005 and I would expect wage scales to improve as well as firms start to spend a little more to compete for talent. Big companies will numerically have more positions, yet the staffing opportunities will be across the board.

New Unemployment Claims fall

The ranks of Americans filing initial claimsfor jobless pay shrank by more than expected last week to 323,000, government data showed on Wednesday, while continued claims fell to a 3-1/2 year low in more good news for the U.S. labor market.

November, 2004

It's Veteran's Day, 2004 and the vets have marched up Fifth Avenue to the applause of a sparse crowd. Well, for job seekers, the crowd is sparse but there is applause again.

Contractors are getting assignments (although one large bank has already told us tat rates will be cut by 5% with the new year).

A Jersey City firm pulled a position from us, saying that they had two finalists for it only to report later that day that both had turned down their offer.

Interview numbers are up across the board.

What's going on?

With the election over and some stability in our government, the next two years should be decent for labor. Few firms are not hiring; all firms are trying to keep salaries down and profits are up.

I should have some data about new projects for 2005 but my expecttaion is that staffing will continue its ascent. I'll drop some hints as the month evolves.

Job growth soars in October - Nov. 5, 2004

Employers added 337,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, up from a revised 139,000 in September, the Labor Department reported.

Professional and business services employment rose by 97,000 in October, with temporary help services accounting for about half of the increase
(48,000). Since April 2003, temporary help services has added 397,000 jobs.