Just in time for the holidays, the jobs picture is getting worse across North Carolina for employment in information technology, 

High-tech job seekers are facing a toughening environment across North Carolina, a new report shows. Advertised IT open positions plunged 12 percent in September and have fallen for three consecutive months.

In fact the daily average fell to below the same month total in 2010 and is only 250 higher than a year ago.

Nationally, the news is somewhat better as job openings fell 1.1 percent.

“Employers are pulling back,” warns the North Carolina Technology Association in its latest IT Job Trends report.

After openings surged to nearly 6,000 in March, the job market has fallen sharply with the monthly opportunities falling in five of the ensuing six months.

Budget woes and the presidential campaign apparently are convincing firms to hold off on hiring, at least for now.

“We believe that employers are correcting their outlook for engaging this year with job seekers close to a level last seen before the recession,” the report says. “This resulted in a bump of employment this year.

“The current trend suggests that we will not seen an improvement until after the presidential election.

“With the federal budget uncertainties for next year in mind employers may want to restrain themselves until decisions have been made in Washington.”

The daily open jobs average last month fell to 4,110. That’s down from 4,680 in August and 4,880 in July, according to data compiled by SkillProof, a talent management firm.

A year ago, IT jobs listings were 3,860.

In 2010, the average was higher at 4,240.

The only job category that increased in demand in September from August was in systems administration, which improved 10.2 percent.

Demand by Categories

On the positive side, several specific categories of jobs did show improvement from a year ago.

Openings are up for systems engineering and support, software development, IT management and systems administration.

However, demand for IT architects and consultants as well as IT sales and marketing, hardware engineering and business process/design all fell.

Demand by Specific Skills

Interestingly, many of the top 15 job skills needed saw demand shrink from last year despite the overall increase in market openings.

SQL, Windows OS, Unix, Oracle DBMS, even Linux openings dropped.

Especially hard hit was Windows OS with openings dropping to 560 from 810.