Nearly 46% of IT directors plan to hire personnel in 2010, three times the number who plan to shed jobs (17%) according to research from ReThink Recruitment, the technology staffing company.
Figures show that the IT recruitnent sector is slowly returning to growth. The European Information Technology Observatory, the market research company, said last week it expected global IT sales to grow 2.9% to €2,300bn (£2,072bn) this year following a 1.6% decline in 2009.
The Association of Professional Staffing Companies, which represents more than 150 technology staffing businesses, has also found an increase in demand for IT contractors since the start of the year. Contractors are usually the first into and out of a recession, as it is easier for companies to curb use of such external services during tough times than to cut permanent staff.
However, despite the influx of new workers, it seems that IT workers are no more likely to receive pay increases in the coming fiscal year than the rest of the workforce. Over half the IT directors who responded said that pay freezes currently in place will continue through 2010.
IT workers have already been hit with two years of pay austerity, longer than the pay freezes that accompanied the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2000. Seven in 10 IT staff either had their pay frozen or cut in 2009, and contract rates have remained broadly unchanged.
However, Michael Bennett, a director of ReThink recruitment, says: "As IT departments beging hiring again, they will increasingly have to poach personnel from rivel organisations, which will fuel rapid pay rises."
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