Green Shoots of Tech Hiring Appear in Spring Air

The giants of technology and the Internet that are thriving in terms of revenue, profits and notoriety are reporting increased headcounts. Google, Intel, Twitter and LinkedIn have been increasing their workforces to meet business and growth demands.

Some of the big technology players that are seeing signs of improved earnings and profit are also seeing an increase in hiring and hiring expectations for 2010. Google, Intel, Cisco Systems and others have increased their headcounts in the first quarter of 2010 and will continue to hire throughout the remainder of the year. Even Oracle and Hewlett-Packard-which cut back some full-time positions due to acquisition redundancies with the Sun Microsystems and EDS deals-have stated that they are expecting to hire more workers this year.

Search giant Google saw a nice 37 percent jump in profit in the first quarter and added 786 new employees to its roster in the first three months of the year, the company said April 15 on an earnings call.

"We expect to continue hiring aggressively through the year," said Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette, according to the call's transcript. "We have a strong pipeline of candidates primarily focused on engineering and sales, and we are on-boarding them to fuel our growth agenda as fast as possible."

Intel reported a 44 percent jump in sales in the first quarter April 14 and announced that it will increase its headcount by between 1,000 and 2,000 workers in 2010. Intel reported that it had seen strong consumer demand for laptops and increased business spending on infrastructure hardware.

Some smaller companies with big Internet brands are also hiring. Microblog sensation Twitter, which recently revealed its plans for revenue creation with advertising, has added 125 employees since May 2009. Career social network site LinkedIn has also hired 184 additional employees, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Temporary workforce provider Yoh reported the week of April 12 that it saw a 2 percent increase in demand for temporary technology workers and an uptick in wages in March.

"The sheer nature of the recession, its depth and impact, caused many corporations to simply suspend significant IT upgrades and modernizations," Yoh President Lori Schultz said in a statement. "However, outside factors, such as security, cloud computing and consumerization of IT, took no such holiday. Corporations are now faced with the [challenge] of not only cleaning up, but catching up, or [else they must] forever forsake market share and market leadership."

Will temporary wage increases for technology workers translate into full-time jobs? Yoh believes it will, as stated in the company's "Yoh Index of Technology Wages" report:

"Temporary employee wages are generally considered a [bellwether] of future jobs creation, as employers turn first to temporary workers in advance of hiring full-time employees in an improving economy. An increase in both the index and real wages suggests that demand for these professionals grew in the first quarter of 2010 and that this demand increased temporary labor costs. As these costs rise, employers tend to moderate that investment by hiring full-time workers, transforming variable to fixed costs, once convinced of future economic strength."