Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of WRAL Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Information technology job seekers are finding the best market for their services since the recession struck in 2008, according to new data from the N.C. Technology Association and its partners in producing their monthly “IT Job Trends” report.
The average daily listed openings in North Carolina in March rose to 4,840, up 11 percent from February. Nationally, demand increased 2.5 percent.
In March 2009 as the recession really began to bite, job listings were a meager 1,120.
Last year, the count increased to 2,600.
As the first quarter of 2011 ended, openings rose from 4,140 in January and 4,360 in February.
The latest surge came despite a 9.7 percent drop-off in Triangle area jobs. That was more than offset by a 21.4 percent jump in Charlotte, according to NCTA, TEK Systems and SkillPROOF. Both firms focus on workforce management, recruitment and staffing.
Leading the job demand was the systems engineering and support category, where openings surged to 1,480 from 800 a year ago.
IT management nearly doubled to 830 from 440, and IT architects/consultant demand did double to 780 from 390.
But perhaps the most impressive jump came in hardware engineering, with 240 openings compared to a mere 10 in March 2010.
What skills are in most demand?
Here’s the top 15 with current openings followed by 2010 totals:
• Windows OS, 750 (370)
• Business analysis, 700 (430)
• SQL, 680 (450)
• Oracle DBMS, 650 (500)
• Java, 630 (480)
• Large system technologies, 520 (300)
• C++/VC++, 500 (250)
• Unix, 470 (320)
• Linux, 410 (270)
• Microsoft SQL Server, 360 (290)
• Web services, 280 (170)
• Mainframe, 280 (130)
• XML, 250 (170)
• Perl, 230 (150)
• Virtualization technology, 220 (110)
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