Technology Recruiting and Hiring Activity Increasing

Available technology job openings have lost a little bit of steam, recruiting activity jumps and hiring activity is expected to expand in the third quarter, according to two industry hiring surveys.

The last month saw a decrease of more than 700 open full-time, part-time and contract positions on Dice.com, according to its early August report.

On July 1, the number of openings were 66,672, while on Aug. 2, available openings were 65,959. The silver lining is that those 700 jobs could have been filled in the last month, so these fluctuations are not necessarily a negative data point, but rather, simply, an observable one. Also, the numbers used in the Dice report are one-day snapshots, usually taken on or near the date of the report's publishing.

The key, Dice officials note, is to understand the frequency with which recruiters and hiring managers are using the job board to scope out potential candidates. In 2010, resumes are being viewed 50 percent more in the last month than they were a year ago.

"That's the under-the-radar job market-where HR professionals and recruiters get to the unique work of finding qualified candidates that are a fit for their organization," said Tom Silver, vice president of Dice, in a statement. "This isn't a secret culture where a certain keyword is crucial to success. In fact, 80 percent of employers will search the resume database before posting their job publicly."

The remaining 20 percent are looking beyond static resumes posted on a site and looking to social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and blogs to find the broadest, most vivid picture of potential employees that they can find.

"To department leadership, the combination of a resume, a skills profile and a social web profile is more powerful than a resume alone," said Silver. "Tech professionals may be asked to show example programs, a piece of elegant code or a mood board or to discuss their leadership, organizational or management skills. This all seems easier with living examples that can be viewed on the web."

Hiring is expected to rise for technology workers in the third quarter, according to technology staffing firm TEKsystems, whose most recent report showed a 6 percent increase in temporary hiring plans from the second quarter. Additionally, 59 percent of 1,000 IT managers and CIOs polled for the survey expect project needs will increase over the next six months and permanent hires will increase over temporary ones over the same time period.

"Given the uptick we're seeing in permanent hires, organizations are likely coming to the realization that the skill sets required in current projects will be needed in house to maintain new technologies longer term," said TEKsystems Research Manager Tania Lavin in an Aug. 3 statement.