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Cautious Optimism Drives IT Employment Growth: Page 2 of 2

At a more granular level, Reed says companies moving to virtualization and cloud computing, who are also seeking cost and productivity enhancements are, in part, driving the increase, along with renewed interest in website development and the retiring and replacement of old hardware.

Other key findings include that the net three percent increase in projected hiring activity is down three points from the prior quarter but up three points from this time last year. The South Atlantic and East South Central regions anticipate the most active IT hiring, and Network administration skills remain the most in demand among employers. Networking topped the CIO skills wish list, at 60 percent, followed by database management (54 percent), and Windows administration (Server 2000/2003/2008) and desktop support (51 percent each). Other skills in demand include: wireless network management, telecommunications support, Web development/Website design, business intelligence, virtualization and enterprise resource provisioning (ERP) implementation.

Finding skilled networking professionals was rated as the most challenging functional area, cited by 21 percent of CIOs, followed by information security and help desk/technical support, each with 13 percent of the response. From an industry perspective, business services is expected to be the biggest employer, with 14 percent of CIOs planning to hire and eight percent looking to downsize.