11 Reasons Guarded Optimism Prevails on IT Hiring Front

Separate surveys from two career and employment companies indicate that IT hiring managers remain cautiously optimistic about staffing expansions. The two surveys, from Dice and TEKsystems, reveal that expectations for tech department budget increases are conservative, but there will likely be less turnover, too. Despite the rising concerns about available funds, tech job candidates are still lobbying to make more money. On the encouraging side, confidence is building among IT managers in terms of their ability to meet business expectations. "IT leaders [are settling] into a pattern where they recognize they will not see the budget increases they expected, yet they remain confident in their ability to satisfy demands," Jason Hayman, research manager for TEKsystems, said in a statement. "This indicates a closer alignment between business and IT in which business initiatives, their impact and priority level are clearly communicated to IT, allowing leaders to use their budget effectively." More than 700 hiring managers took part in the Dice research. An estimated 240 IT leaders took part in the TEKsystems research. Channel Insider looks at key data points on the overall IT employment outlook as well as where the strongest jobs growth is.