Good news for high tech job seekers: The information technology job market in North Carolina is back to pre-recession levels.
So says the new “IT Job Trends” report from the North Carolina Technology Association.
The daily average of advertised job openings in March soared more than 20 percent from February to 5,670, NCTA reported Thursday.
That’s the highest number since July of 2007 before the recession hit and more than double that of two years ago.
The last time the daily average topped 6,000 was in June 2007.
“The IT job market is North Carolina is returning,” NCTA says in the monthly employment summary with data provided by SkillProof, a talent management firm.
The good news in IT also points to more optimism for other jobs, NCTA added.
“Job postings not just represent opportunities for job seekers but are also an expression of employer confidence into the near term economic future,” the report says. “As such they underlie much stronger fluctuation than actual payroll.”
Defense, financial services and high-tech firms were the most active employers.
The hottest IT job market is Durham where advertised openings surged 25.4 percent. Charlotte opportunities increased 14.5 percent. In Raleigh, however, demand was up only slightly.
The Select Group, a staffing and recruitment firm which sponsors the report, says the data and the drop of the state’s unemployment rate to under 10 percent are good news for people wanting work or looking to change jobs.
“The Select Group has observed that current IT hiring and demand is keeping up a sizzling pace across the state,” the company says in the NCTA report summary. “That observation matches the findings of a recent survey, the first ever survey of North Carolina small and mid-sized business owners, PCN reports optimism.”
Job openings in February averaged 4,700, up from 4,090 in January.
A year ago in March, the daily average was 4,840.
In March 2010, only 2,600 listings were found.
Hottest in demand are systems engineers and support with 1,820 openings. That’s up more than 400 from a year earlier.
Software development jobs are next at 1,150, a sharp increase from 830 in 2011.
However, openings are down in two categories from a year ago: IT architects and consultants at 710, a drop of 70; and hardware engineering, a decline of 60.
In terms of specific skill sets, most in demand are Windows Operating System at 1,070 followed by Linux at 940 and SQL at 870.
The Linux openings were nearly double that of a year ago, perhaps a reflection of Red Hat’s continued growth and demand for open-source solutions in areas such as “cloud computing.”
However, the national IT jobs picture was not as good. The U.S. daily openings average fell 2.3 percent in March, but the dip could be temporary.
“We believe that this is a temporary development and will change in April,” NCTA said in the report.
Read the full report here.
