Job Growth in New York State

Growth in 2005 was 1.1% following three straight years of declinefrom 2000 - -2003 and rowth of .8% in 2004. In 2006 growth is expected to slow down again according to documents released by Governor Pataki. Most growth in the state is expected in the Nw York area.

This ranks New York State 49th in the nation in job creation.

Jobless Claims Reached a 5 Year Low

January 2006

January, 2006
How Things Change

There is nothing like two weeks with a lighter than usual schedule to put the bloom back in a search professionals cheeks and the smile back into his or her face again. A few years ago, we all came back from the Christmas-New Year’s holidays looking at one another and wondering what to do.

Today, I came back (I now live in Milford, PA and I work from home when it snows as it did yesterday) and my office was energetic and so was I. We all have work to do. Clients we haven’t spoken with in years are asking for help. It is a good time to be in my line of work.

And look at the news. CIO magazine in it’s January 1, 2006 survey reports that 55% of CIO’s expect to increase staff size by an average of 11%. Only 9% plan on cutting personnel. This is a radical departure from a few years ago.

And the Wall Street Journal points out that India is developing a talent shortage. Yes, many of the Indian companies are starting to go to China for staff but that will, again, prove an inadequate solution.

Where is the growth projected? Although many point to that old favorite, the midlevel professional, as the area of growth, frankly there are not enough midlevel people to meet demand.

Another area of growth is with project managers, continuing the pattern we forecast beginning in 2004 with the end of the tech recession.

Wages should continue to grow but, for a while they will be at the same snail’s pace as we have seen for several years. By the third quarter or end of year, I expect wages to start to sail based upon continuous need meeting continuous shortage. The problem is not unique to one part of the country or one sector. A large professional services firm expects to hire 50 program managers and 50 enterprise architects. Another wants 45 Websphere portal professionals, 30 in Siebel, 80 with SAP skills and on and on.

A friend of mine, Hal Klegman from Roy Talman & Associates in Chicago, told me a story today of speaking to a group of studentsand correcting the guidance counselor present. The guidance counselor (and the media) have been telling a persistent story of the tech sector being dead. Hal corrected them saying that it is very much alive. I’ll go a step further.

In the stock and commodity markets, when everyone tells you it’s time to buy, I have learned that it is time to sell. The reverse is also true. When everyone is telling you that an entire industry like tech is dead, you wait for a while and ride the comeback trail with it.

Because the last recession was the first to affect tech, the naysayers and doom and gloomers spoke loud and hard. Kids watched their parents out of work for long periods of time. The number of Computer Science grads at US universities (take out the foreign born students on F-1 visas here) is down dramatically. This should tell you it’s time to get your children interested in business and technology . . . again.

So where are we going? Barring an act of terrorism or war, I continue to see a lot of opportunity and not enough people for them.

Smile. Many of you will be CTO’s and CIO’s as a result.


Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

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