An active third quarter is projected for hiring in New England’s high tech sector.
According to a recent survey, New England states should see the most active technology hiring in the coming months. Twenty-two percent of chief information officers (CIOs) plan to expand their information technology (IT) departments and just 1 percent anticipate reductions in personnel, for a net hiring increase of 21 percent.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
“Companies focused on maximizing their relationships with clients are making investments in customer relationship management (CRM) systems,” said Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of RHI Consulting, the Menlo Park, Calif. company that conducted the survey. “As a result, there is heightened demand in the region for Oracle and Java developers to provide front-end support for these systems as well as database professionals to oversee implementation.”
According to statistics from the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training’s Labor Market Information Division, an increase of more than 4,000 jobs is projected in the Computer and Data Processing Service sector between 1998 and 2008.
During that period, employment in Rhode Island is projected to grow at all education and skill levels, from jobs requiring on-the-job training to those requiring advanced degrees. During the projection period, it is expected that employers will need to find workers to fill over 175,000 job openings.
One-third of the job openings are attributed to the economic growth that is expected during this period. The remaining job openings are linked to employee turnover.
Among the top 50 occupations projected to experience the largest growth in Rhode Island are systems analysts (975), computer engineers (747), computer support specialists (741) and computer programmers (398).
According to a list by the Providence Business News this spring, Rhode Island’s largest high tech employer is Verizon Communications. Eighty-six percent – 1,200 of the company’s 1,400 employees – are classified as IT workers, and increasing that number seems inevitable as the company expands its services.
“We are looking to continue to grow our DSL, wireless and long distance services in the very near future,” said Verizon Spokesperson Tracey Kennedy.
The company, which has offered long distance service in New York since 1999 and began offering the service to its Massachusetts customers in April, will soon file with the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities to provide long distance service here, Kennedy said.
Although she did not have the exact number of employees Verizon expects to hire, Kennedy said, “as we add these new products and services, we will need a complement of employees to provide them.”
Mike DeAngelis, spokesperson for another of Rhode Island’s largest IT employers, CVS Corporation (which was ranked third on the Providence Business News list), said that while the company has no major expansion plans, “there will continue to be opportunities at the company.”
Roughly a fifth (1,000 of 5,100) of workers employed by CVS are categorized in the IT category, DeAngelis said.
Other regions
CIOs in the West South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas) region
also forecast notable employment gains during the next three months. Twenty-one
percent of executives plan to add IT staff and 4 percent expect cutbacks, for
a net hiring increase of 17 percent. Employment growth is also expected to exceed
the national average in the Mountain (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico,
Nevada, Utah, Wyoming) and Pacific (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington)
states, where CIOs in each region anticipate net hiring increases of 15 percent.
National Outlook
Nationally, CIOs project a net 12 percent increase in the hiring of IT professionals
during the third quarter of 2001, a nine point decline from the prior quarter’s
forecast. According to RHI Consulting’s quarterly Information Technology Hiring
Index, 16 percent of technology executives plan to add staff in the next three
months while 4 percent expect cutbacks.
The percentage of CIOs who plan to maintain existing staff levels is up six points, from 73 percent last quarter to 79 percent during the third quarter of this year.
The national poll includes responses from 1,400 CIOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees. It was conducted by an independent research firm and developed by RHI Consulting, a leading firm providing information technology professionals on a project and full-time basis.
“Many firms have put hiring plans on hold as a result of a more cautious economic climate in the United States,” Lee said. “While hiring expectations are more conservative than previous quarters, those firms that are adding personnel report demand for networking talent, Internet/intranet developers and help desk support specialists, in particular.”
Industries hiring
Technology executives in the retail sector forecast the strongest hiring levels
among all industries surveyed. Nineteen percent of CIOs expect to add IT staff
and just 1 percent anticipate reductions in personnel, for a net hiring increase
of 18 percent. CIOs in the construction industry also anticipate strong employment
growth, with a projected net hiring increase of 16 percent.
In addition, the transportation and professional services sectors should see hiring activity above the national average with respective net hiring increases of 15 percent and 14 percent forecast for the third quarter of 2001.
