WRAL Tech Wire

N.C.'s IT job market isn't at 'bottom' yet, but decline does slow

Decline in number of IT job openings does slow

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• NCTA
• SkillProof

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Is the technology job market hitting bottom in North Carolina? Could be, according to the latest “IT Job Trends” report.

The number of open information technology positions in the state dropped in February to 1,060, but the decline of 70 from January was the smallest change in several months. So says the North Carolina Technology Association and SkillProof, a talent search and management firm.

Still, the authors wrote depressingly, “The IT job market in North Carolina is still searching for a bottom.”

Interestingly, the report notes that while the national IT job market declined 7 percent, IT openings in Raleigh fell 20.8 percent and in Charlotte 17.6 percent.

NCTA officials made their annual rounds at the state’s General Assembly on Tuesday, lobbying on a variety of tax and other related issues. The Job Trends report certainly helped them document that North Carolina’s high-tech sector is hardly recession-proof, as layoffs at Sony Ericsson, IBM, Nortel, Cisco, Lenovo and other firms have clearly indicated.

However, even as the decline that began in October and cascaded into a tidal wave slowed, the report noted, “There are not bright spots yet on the horizon.”

Two years ago, more than 5,030 jobs needed to be filled. Last year, there were more than 4,230. After stabilizing in mid-2008 at around 3,000, the bottom fell out.

Compared with February of 2008, job demand increased in only one set of skills – SAP with 50 openings compared with 40 a year ago.

In general categories, demand was down across the board.

Sadly, software development demand fell another 27 percent to 160, down from 760 in February of 2008.

Job openings in February:

• Systems engineers/support: 390
• Software development: 160
• Systems administration: 140
• IT architects/consultants: 100
• IT management: 100
• IT sales and marketing: 80
• Business/process design: 40
• Training/tech writing: 20
• Hardware engineering: 10
• Misc. categories: 30

Job openings by specific skill sets:

• Windows OS: 200
• SQL: 170
• Oracle DBMS: 130
• Unix: 110
• Windows NT/2000/2003 Server: 110
• C++/V++: 100
• Business Analysis: 100
• Java: 90
• Microsoft SQL Server: 80
• Linux: 80
• HTML: 60
• SAP: 50
• XML: 50
• Websphere (IBM): 50
• Perl: 40

The Skinny

WRAL Local Tech Wire Publisher and Editor Rick Smith dishes out tidbits from the local technology sector. Read more articles…