Technology Trends Report – December 2011

The Dice Report

.SHORTAGE — October 2011

• There’s a shortage of talent for a particular skill in every geographic section of the U.S. It’s the technology developers love to hate – Microsoft’s .NET.
• The .NET job count is up more than 25% as compared to last year, faster growth than total jobs posted on Dice.
• More than a quarter of searches in the Dice resume database that included both .NET and years of experience were for talent with less than three years of experience.
  Read the full report.

Pace Handicapping — November 2011

• The recruiting environment for tech professionals is less urgent than what we experienced in the first half of the year. The backdrop is still good – the unemployment rate for tech professionals is 4.2%, resumes viewed on Dice is at an all-time high and the job count on Dice is up 12% year/year. But, the Dice job count has plateaued for five months – a subtle sign that some restraint has returned to the recruiting landscape.
  Read the full report.

Hiring Survey – December 2011

• Demand for tech professionals will remain a bright spot as 2012 begins, according to nearly 1,200 IT-focused hiring managers and recruiters surveyed by Dice.
• Some 65% of hiring professionals said their companies or clients plan to add tech pros in the first half of 2012 – with 27% of those looking to expand staffs by more than 20%.
• More than four in 10 (42%) predict that salaries for new hires would grow in the coming year.
  Read the full report.

Special Report

America’s Tech Talent Crunch
“There’s a definite lack of supply of high-level talent to meet the demand. It’s very difficult to find high-quality programmers,” says Joe Omansky, Head of Community for Trusted Insight, Inc. He chuckles at someone shouting from across the office. “My programmer, who’s sitting here, says he just he got another offer – and they’re offering to pay him more.”  Read America’s Tech Talent Crunch.

Dice in the News

HIRING TRENDS FOR SPECIFIC TECH SKILLS

HTML5: The Technology Changing the Web – Wall Street Journal
A year and a half after Steve Jobs endorsed it in an unusual essay, a set of programming techniques called HTML5 is rapidly winning over the Web. Don Clark has details on Digits. Read complete article.

‘Puppet’ Masters in High Demand for Software Company Openings – Wall Street Journal
“Puppet” is the name of software used to automate and simplify systems administration—and it’s in high demand. Read complete article.

7 ‘MBA preferred’ IT jobs – Network World
Among the 84,000 open tech positions currently listed on Dice.com, there are roughly 1,400 job listings that say a master’s of business administration is preferred, and they come from a variety of industries, says Tom Silver, senior vice president, North America, at the tech jobs site. Read complete article.

Linux Skills Still Hot After 20 Years – IT Business Edge
PCWorld.com writer Katherine Noyes spoke with Alice Hill of Dice. Hill told her you’d find around 11,000 Linux jobs at Dice on any given day. Linux job postings on Dice are growing at a rate of 31% year over year, while postings overall are increasing by 20% a year. Read complete article.

Job Listings Prove That Microsoft Still Matters – Business Insider
Microsoft employees sometimes worry that they’re in a technology bubble, as they hear about all the hot new startups building Web systems with non-Microsoft technology like Ruby on Rails, or building iPhone apps in Objective C.  Read complete article.

Tech Job Site Dice Reports Shortage of .NET Developers – TechCrunch.com
According to the October Dice Report, there’s one particular tech talent now in short supply across the U.S.: Microsoft’s .NET. Read complete article.

iPhone Apps: A DIY Skill That’s in Big Demand – Network World
iPhone developers are in demand across the United States and Canada, causing salaries to skyrocket for those with experience creating complex, mobile applications on Apple’s iOS platform. Read complete article.

GENERAL TECH HIRING TRENDS

IT Job Listings Plateau–Network World
Compared to a year ago, the IT job market looks healthy. But a look at Dice’s stats from the last five months shows that growth in the IT jobs market has stalled. Dice’s Alice Hill offers insight into companies’ recruiting priorities and what positions are being sought by tech pros.  Read complete article.

IT Job Market Healthy, Developers in Demand – eWeek
Hiring managers’ top requests in the Dice resume database in the third quarter of 2011 were for a Java/J2EE or Java developer. Read complete article.

IT Recruiting a Casualty of the Recession – Network World
In the face of a lousy economy, hiring freezes and expense cuts, many companies have decimated their recruiting teams. But as IT staffs ramp up efforts to fill open positions and compete for key talent, this lack of recruiting resources could hurt them. Read complete article.

RETENTION

Protect Your Best Employees – Baseline Magazine
Today’s tech boom is the 21st Century version of the California gold rush. But today’s gold is a treasure of a different sort—people.  Read complete article.

Tips, Tools and Resources from Dice

Dice is more than just a career site and recruiting network. We are a trusted resource for employers and recruiters. Visit the home page of Dice’s extensive Resource Center at resources.dice.com.

To read additional articles on technology trends, go to media.dice.com.