The career environment for high-tech may still be far from hot as 2009 comes to a close, but it is at least beginning to warm up, according to a recent survey from Dice.com, a career site for technology and engineering professionals.

Based on the survey, Dice reported that hiring expectations of technology recruiters and hiring managers have improved slightly over the last six months. While still below the 50% mark, 45% of respondents said they expect flat to increasing hiring plans for the first six months of 2010. On the flip side, 48% of respondents said they anticipate cutbacks in hiring. While cutbacks in hiring plans are still high, the 48% respondent result represents a significant decline from this past June, when eight in 10 employers reported decreased hiring expectations, Dice noted. Specific to engineering, 43% of respondents said they did not have layoffs in 2009, with 57% responding that they had at least 1 round of layoffs in the year.

“It’s still a mixed and uncertain hiring environment and challenges will persist in 2010. However, we’ve seen applications per job moderate slightly from the first quarter of this year, as well as the job count on Dice moving up from its low,” said Tom Silver, senior VP, North America of Dice, in a statement. “To us, these tentative improvements in supply and demand indicate the market for technology professionals is leveling out.”

According to the survey’s results, the worst of the layoffs in high tech may be behind us. Indeed, 55% of respondents said they think layoffs are unlikely in the next six months, less than 8% believe that layoffs are very likely in the next six months, and more that 80% of respondents said they would be hiring at least one position in the next three months.

The Dice survey found that companies headquartered in the eastern and southern regions of the US are the most optimistic about hiring, with the West and Midwest lagging. Healthcare, finance, and government showed as the most promising hiring sectors in 2010.

However, Dice cautioned technology professionals shouldn’t expect better pay or a quick hiring process. For new hires, nine in 10 companies said salaries are flat to down as compared to last year and 50% of hiring managers indicated that the time to fill a position is still longer than this time last year.

Dice conducted its survey in November 2009. Those surveyed included human resource professionals and recruiters from every region of the US who primarily hire or recruit technology professionals. More than 850 responded to the e-mail survey, with 54% identified as companies that recruit for their own needs, 37% were staffing recruiting or consulting firms, and 9% were government agencies.

By: DocMemory
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