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Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39373307,00.htm

Tech job demand rallying in economic storm
Only nurses are doing better

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Thursday 08 January 2009

Tech jobs appear to be suffering less during the economic downturn than those in other sectors.

According to a survey by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), demand seen by recruitment consultants for permanent IT and computing jobs in December fell by around 34 per cent month-on-month, compared to an average drop of 42 per cent across industries that experienced a decline.

IT is holding its own in contract jobs too. Compared to other sectors, IT and computing had the second smallest decline in demand for temporary and contract jobs, falling by 29 per cent. Only the hotel and catering sector fared better.

Across industry sectors, demand for temporary or contract work dropped by an average of 36 per cent month-on-month.

Of all sectors included in the research only the nursing, medical and care sector experienced an increase in demand for permanent and temporary jobs during the month.

Industries that saw a bigger drop in demand for jobs included accounting and financial, blue collar, secretarial and clerical and engineering and construction.

Speaking to silicon.com, REC board director and CEO of IT recruitment agency IT Human Resources, Sean Gallagher, said the fact technology is now so integral to business means jobs in the sector are less vulnerable in a downturn.

"Typically a FTSE 250 organisation implementing a new system will take several years to do so and you don't stop implementing a system at the drop of a hat. These things don't necessarily stop just because the world is panicking," he said.

"IT is at the heart of the business, it is the lifeblood of the business. There is no facet of our lives that isn't driven or linked to IT."

CEO of IT training company Firebrand Training, Rob Chapman told silicon.com that given the skills shortage in the tech industry, demand is unlikely to suffer as much as sectors where skills are in more plentiful supply.

He said: "There are hundreds of thousands of vacancies apparently across Europe for IT people. [Even if] there's a downturn, then you're still going to have demand for jobs because you've still got vacancies that need to be filled."