Financial Firms to Increase IT Hiring in Fourth Quarter

Corporate growth is continuing to drive the need in the U.S. for more IT staff across all industries, but the financial services industry is expected to see the largest growth in IT hiring in the fourth quarter, according to a new report from consulting firm Robert Half Technology. The "Hiring Index and Skills Report" shows that 23 percent of CIOs in the finance, insurance and real estate industry expect to increase hiring in their IT departments in the last quarter of 2007. This compares to only 14 percent of CIOs across all industries.

"Firms in the finance, insurance and real estate sector are actively recruiting Internet/intranet developers, networking experts and help desk/end-user support staff to sustain growth," says Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half Technology. She adds, however, that the market for IT candidates with specific, in-demand skill sets is increasingly tight. "For example, experienced .NET, XML and AJAX developers, database administrators, data warehouse managers, systems auditors and security analysts may have multiple job offers from which to choose, because people with those skills are in such limited supply," Lee explains. According to the Robert Half study -- which surveyed more than 1,400 CIOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees -- CIOs said the technical skill set needed most in IT departments is Windows administration, followed by network administration (Cisco, Nortel) and database management (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2).

Meanwhile, in a separate study, Robert Half found that the technical support function is largely understaffed across all industries. CIOs said their companies' technical support staffs are on average 40 percent smaller than they optimally should be.