Yesterday, Robert Half Technology released its IT Hiring Index and Skills Report and it contained some good news for IT professionals: of the more than 1,400 IT executives polled, 17% of them plan to hire more IT pros in Q3 while 2% plan staff cuts. That equates to a 15% net gain, a three point increase from Q2 and the highest overall jump since the fourth quarter of 2001.

Breaking down the numbers

Robert Half Technology has also released eight graphs (see gallery) that provide additional insights including a breakdown by industry, regional differences, hot job roles, and skills that in demand (below).

A contrary view

My colleagues at ZDNet also reported this, and there was an interesting comment from the user Roger Ramjet in response to the IT skills in demand chart:

Since I’ve been in the job market for 4 months, I can say that it looks like I’m getting more action now. But where did you get those stats on job type? In my research, Java programming jobs are by far the most prevalent. Project management jobs are next and sysadmin comes after those. If you had a choice between getting a MCSE or a Java cert – I know which one I would choose.

Roger has a decent point here. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed a resurgence of demand for Java developers recently, while I haven’t seen anything in particular that points to there being a shortage of Windows admins or extra demand in that specialty. But, like I said, that’s totally anecdotal. I’d be interested to hear what other people are seeing. The timing of this report is good, since yesterday I just posted about IT spending and outsourcing and about IT specialties that are hot right now.

Your take?

What do you think about the jump in IT hiring? Does it match what you’re seeing in the field? Does the list of skills in demand match what you’re seeing? Join the discussion.