The hiring outlook for IT employees remains positive for the second half of 2008, as 35 percent of IT employers are planning to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees from July through December; the highest among all industries surveyed. The CareerBuilder.com Midyear Employment Forecast was conducted from May 22 through June 13, 2008.

Looking forward, IT employees are keeping their options open. Twenty percent of employees reported they were actively looking for a new job. But, of those not actively looking for a job, 85 percent stated they would be open to a new one if they came across the right opportunity.

"Attracting and retaining skilled workers in the IT industry continues to be a challenge, as 45 percent of IT employers cite that they have open positions for which they cannot find qualified talent," said Eric Presley, Chief Technology Officer for CareerBuilder.com. "The pervasiveness of and reliance upon technology continues to escalate and the amount of graduates in IT is trailing behind the demand for their knowledge and expertise. Employers are becoming more competitive in their recruitment and retention efforts to secure top talent."

The shortage of qualified IT talent may be impacting company's bottom lines as well, as nearly one-third of employers (31 percent) are hanging on to employees that may not be performing at optimal levels in order to keep desks occupied.

One of the ways IT employers are appealing to in-demand workers is by increasing employee salaries. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of IT hiring managers say the average change in salary will be 5 percent or more in the second half of 2008 compared to the first half of the year.

While increases in salaries by IT employers is a step in the right direction (53 percent of IT workers say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their pay), there are other areas that are of concern to IT workers. They include:

  -- 38 percent of IT workers describe their workload as heavy or too heavy
  -- 23 percent of IT workers are dissatisfied with their career progress
  -- 23 percent of IT workers are dissatisfied with their work/life balance


  CareerBuilder.com garners more than 6 million IT job searches per month.

  Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 216 IT hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions); and 506 U.S. IT employees (employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over between May 22 and June 13, 2008, respectively (percentages for some questions are based on a subset U.S. Employers or Employees, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 216 and 506 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 6.67 percentage points and +/- 4.36 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. , Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company and Microsoft Corp. , the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 26 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/.

   Media Contact:
   Allison Nawoj
   773-527-2437
   allison.nawoj@careerbuilder.com

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SOURCE: CareerBuilder.com