Posted on 01/09/2005 7:32:28 PM PST by Libertarian Nationalist GOPr
Brian Gabrielson is used to the first week of January being a busy one at staffing firm Robert Half Technology in Phoenix.
This year, though, demand from Arizona companies seeking high-tech employees hit with three times its usual force, leaving division director Gabrielson surprised.
"We took 32 new positions just yesterday alone. That's a phenomenal number," he said. "It's been a steamroller."
The market for high-tech jobs is picking up again in Arizona. Staffing firms and others in the high-tech arena say they started to notice demand rising last summer, and that it began accelerating even more in November.
An improving economy is fueling companies' growth, making executives more confident in hiring, they say. Other factors include information-technology projects that can be neglected no longer and new applications that companies need developed.
Further evidence of the trend:
• General Dynamics C4 Systems, the Scottsdale-based division of defense giant General Dynamics Corp., will hold a job fair Saturday to fill nearly 300 engineering and program manager jobs. A similar job fair in October drew hundreds of job seekers and resulted in 30 new hires.
• The Arizona Technology Council was getting so many requests from member companies looking to hire workers that it launched a job-matching service on its Web site in late November. The Career Center has 55 technology jobs posted from 23 local companies so far, and council staffers are eager to get more job candidates in the system.
• A net 13 percent of chief information officers in the Phoenix area said they plan to hire workers in the first quarter, according to a survey of 100 executives by Robert Half Technology. That is better than the national average, where just a net 9 percent of 1,400 CIOs surveyed have hiring plans.
"I definitely think the trend is there are more jobs out there now," said Traci Blackstone, director of human resources at Cyclone Commerce Inc. in Scottsdale.
Blackstone has noticed more businesses posting jobs on the Web sites she uses, and she has received fewer responses to the jobs she posts. The software company has 98 employees and is looking to fill five jobs through the technology council's service.
The hiring surge is a welcome change from the past few years, when big companies like Motorola Inc. laid off thousands of workers and once-promising small companies shut their doors.
Arizona lost more than 20,000 high-tech jobs in 2001 and 2002 after adding 27,600 such jobs between 1994 and 2000, according to the annual Cyberstates reports from high-trade association AeA. Updated figures are due next month.
Some of the demand is being driven by increased federal spending on defense and military needs.
General Dynamics has won billions of dollars of new contracts in the past two years. It is seeking engineers experienced in communication, radio and spacecraft systems, along with lead software and project engineers. Salaries range from $60,000 to $150,000 a year. Applicants must hold or be qualified for a U.S. Defense Department security clearance.
"The economy is a major driver," Robert Half's Gabrielson said. "There is a lot more confidence out there."
His office, which primarily placed candidates in project work during the down years, now is placing more candidates for outright hiring.
Salaries also are going up, Gabrielson said, and some candidates are even getting multiple job offers. The firm is having to educate its client companies that they may need to make decisions more quickly than usual to get the candidate they want, he said.
Kathy Sacks, the technology council spokeswoman who was handling members' job requests informally, said that she began noticing the pickup in demand last summer. The council is offering its Career Center service as an added benefit to member companies.
The service allows companies to post job openings at www.arizonatechjobs.com.
Candidates can submit online profiles, and matches are made through technology created by Phoenix-based IdealHire Inc. The service still is in beta testing and will be free to member companies until February, when job postings will cost up to $99 for members, $149 for non-members. The service is and will remain free to job candidates.
I guess we can't link to the AZ Republic. Too bad....this is a good article. Go to azcentral dot com slash azrepublic slash business slash articles slash 0110Techjobs10.html
I have gotten no less than 15 phone calls and 15 e-mails the first week of Jan. I'm just hoping that rates go up now!
(NY metro area, VB/ASP/C#/.NET/ASP/Oracle/SQL Server)
I don't think I got 15 phone calls the entire year last year......
I hope things heat up ... outsourcing on it's way out?
It is a dry heat, it is a dry heat, it is a dry heat
If this happens around my neck of the woods, my entire company will empty out in no time. People have had it with cost-cutting. If they like cost-cutting so much, let them see how much they save when they have no employees.
Some of this is doubtless military related. Lots of the $ that got appropriated 2 and 3 years ago is getting spent now.
But there clearly IS an offshoring backlash in the works as well. First, the offshore costs are going up. Second, particularly where the design of tangible products (as opposed to just system related stuff) is concerned, there's a growing discontent over management inability to control product quality.
Add to this the declining dollar, which is really working to the benefit of U.S. based manufacturing (particularly on products involving high levels of technical skilled labor), and you've got a mini-perfect-storm bringing business back to the U.S.
Good luck in '05!!
LNGOP'r
like the inside of an oven with the door shut, like the inside of an oven with the door shut...
Just keep telling yourself . . . it's a free sauna, it's a free sauna, it's a free sauna.
Yep, I've been in the PHX area for 27 years. I know what you mean. I, however, like some humidity. Not with this heat, but it is so much nicer on the skin.
Were you here in the early 1990's for our 120, 122 degree highs? I tried to fry an egg on the sidewalk, LOL. It didn't work. But it left a lovely mess. :)
"Global warming" seems to have had exactly the opposite effect on Arizona.
You just missed it. I think it was 92. :)
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