A new report shows that 80 percent of Detroit-area CIOs plan to hire IT professionals in the first half of 2014, either to expand or fill vacant positions. In comparison, 73 percent planned to hire new employees in the last six months of 2013.
“The new year often brings new projects, and as a result, companies may be looking to grow their core IT teams at this time of year,” says Stacey Singleton, Detroit regional vice president of Robert Half Technology, which released the report. “We anticipate that web developers, system administrators, and help desk professionals will continue to be in high demand in the next few months, especially in the manufacturing and health care sectors.”
Based on interviews with 100 CIOs, hiring projections for this year show that 12 percent plan to expand their teams for the first half of 2014, while 68 percent plan to hire only for open roles. In contrast, 17 percent plan to put hiring plans on hold and 3 percent expect to reduce their IT staff in the first six months of the year.
Network administration is among the skill sets in greatest demand (66 percent), followed by Windows administration and desktop support, at 54 percent and 51 percent, respectively.
In terms of recruiting, 67 percent of Detroit CIOs said it’s somewhat or very challenging to find skilled IT professionals today, specifically in areas of networking (21 percent), help desk/technical support (21 percent), and security (13 percent).
Despite the challenges, the report found that 92 percent of those surveyed are confident in their companies’ prospects for growth in the first six months of 2014. This compares to 87 percent in the last half of 2013.
