Hiring Expected to Be Robust in Second Half of 2010

Close to 80 percent of 800 companies polled in a new hiring survey are increasing jobs in the second half of 2010.

Nearly half (49 percent) of employers and recruiters plan to increase their headcounts by 10 percent in the next six months, and 28 percent plan to hire between 11 percent and 20 percent more headcount over the same time period, according to a June 1 study by Dice Holdings, which own the job board Dice.com and several Websites for technology professionals and other industry-specific careers. 

"Businesses seem to be gradually loosening their grip on the hiring process as the economy improves," said Scot Melland, chairman, president and CEO of Dice Holdings, in a statement. "At the same time, professionals are more willing to jump ship now. As the employment cycle strengthens, companies are likely to find it more challenging to keep their top talent." 

The news on the expected uptick comes for the remainder of the year amid a restructuring announcement from one of the largest technology employers in the United States, Hewlett-Packard, which plans to shed some 9,000 jobs over the next three years after the completed acquisitions of EDS, 3Com and, most recently, Palm. However, HP said it plans to add 6,000 jobs over that same period, so the net job loss will be around 3,000 employees from a roster of 304,000. 

Technology job postings continue to lead in vacancies, said the business advocacy, non-profit group The Conference Board, in its monthly "Help Wanted Online" report published June 2. 

"Computer and Mathematical Science occupations experienced the largest May gain, up 18,100 to 567,600, their highest level since October 2008, after a much larger April rise, 32,500," wrote The Conference Board in the report. "The May gain reflects in part continued increases in demand for computer systems analysts and computer software engineers (applications)."

There is a host of other good news to report in the Dice Survey: Salaries for new hires are rising for 25 percent of respondents; Nearly 70 percent of those polled do not expect layoffs to occur; Recruiting for new hires is at 20 percent compared to 9 percent in the fall of 2009.

The experience level in most demand are mid-level employees with two to 10 years of experience, though the report notes that senior-level employees with 10-plus years of experience are seeing improvement. How much of an improvement? The report does not cite an associated metric. 

"We expect employers to remain guarded about the economy's recovery, however, the positive trends demonstrate that job market continues to improve," Melland said. 

In an April study, Dice reported full-time technology positions were up 20 percent from March and outpaced contract positions by 13,000 vacancies.