Online Jobs for IT Climb in New York

By Deborah Rothberg
November 21, 2006

Fueled by greater demand for qualified IT workers, online opportunities in New York climbed in October, according to the local employment index released by online career and recruitment resource Monster Worldwide on Nov. 20.

Heightened demand for temporary workers and generally tighter labor market conditions contributed to an increase in online recruitment activity in 22 of 28 monitored markets in October.

"The broad increase in demand for workers in major cities during October is also partly due to an increasingly tight labor market, as reflected by a national unemployment rate that is now at a five-year low of 4.4 percent," Steve Pogorzelski, Monster Worldwide's group president, international, said in a statement.

The two-point jump in online job opportunities in the New York City area was driven largely by higher demand for computer and mathematical occupations, according to the report.

After a lukewarm third quarter, this marked a slight acceleration in the market's annual growth rate.

Demand for IT pros was also strong across sectors including finance, business and professional services.

However, online job opportunities in engineering as well as architecture were flat over the year on the whole, hitting the hardest in many key northeastern and western markets.

An increased demand for sales and related occupations signaled the start of pre-holiday hiring season, Monster reports.

Cleveland posted the largest increase in job availabilities, owing largely to an upsurge in demand for retail and marketing pros. Phoenix saw a dip in recruitment activity for the second straight month amid cooling in its housing market

"The Monster Local Employment Index findings for October show stepped-up recruitment activity across most major U.S. cities, largely driven by the start of the pre-holiday hiring season when employers typically boost hiring efforts to meet their heightened staffing needs," said Pogorzelski.

Houston followed by Minneapolis, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis and Seattle on a year-over-year basis occupied the top spots in the Index. Los Angeles, Orlando, Tampa and Washington D.C. fill out the bottom.