IT hiring outlook improves: Think financial services if job hunting

IT hiring outlook improves: Think financial services if job hunting

Chief information officers say the information technology hiring picture is improving for the second quarter and job hunters may want to focus their efforts on the insurance and financial services sector, according to a survey by Robert Half Technology.

Robert Half, a hiring firm, surveyed more than 1,400 CIOs across companies with more than 100 employees. The upshot: 9 percent of CIOs plan to hire more IT workers and 4 percent plan cuts. That net 5 percent gain is up from the first quarter and year-ago outlook.

Bottom line: The IT hiring picture is improving somewhat, but the bulk of companies plan no hiring changes.

However, what really caught my eye were the industries doing the hiring. Simply put, if you’re looking for IT work start pitching financial services companies-the finance, insurance, and real estate sector.

Here are some stats from recent technology update:

Among the key findings:

* 80 percent of technology executives are confident about their companies’ growth prospects in the second quarter.
* Recruitment and retention are becoming worrisome with 31 percent of CIOs saying they are worried about losing top performers.
* 15 percent of CIOs say that networking workers were the hardest to find, followed by security with 12 percent. 64 percent of CIOs said that network administration was the skill most in demand.