April was one of the best months for full-time job opportunities for technology professionals in a long time, according to a monthly report on job vacancies and trends from technology job board Dice.com. Full-time tech jobs were up 20 percent from March and outnumbering contract positions posted on the site by over 13,000. Contract positions have been flat, though the contract and “skills-based” work category has been a steady part of technology job opportunities over the past year.
“In order to add permanent staff, companies must have confidence in their business outlook-and that’s exactly what we are starting to see,” Tom Silver, a senior vice president at Dice, wrote in the monthly report. “And there’s no doubt where companies are looking for the fresh talent: your employees.”
Evidently, attempts at poaching currently employed technology pros have increased a bit as well, and Dice advises managers and leaders to be aware of impending employee job movement. Thirty-five percent of tech pros polled by Dice in a recent retention survey have been called by recruiters one to five times since the beginning of 2010. A smaller portion-15 percent-have received six to 10 calls from headhunters this year.
What’s on the mind of the currently-employed-but-willing-to-entertain-job-offers tech professional? Keeping quiet about annoyances and work issues, yet wanting a raise. People are keeping their mouths shut for fear of job loss or being labeled a problem, but are expecting to jump ship when the right opportunity comes along.
“More than half (53 percent) of frustrated technology professionals said they are not vocalizing their career issues with their current boss,” wrote Silver. “What incentive do they want to stay? More money-at least 5 percent more-for the vast majority (93 percent) of technology professionals … Right now, green technologies and mobile applications are the fields capturing the strongest emerging interest from tech talent.”
The growth of the job market was also noted by the Conference Board, a business-centric nonprofit organization that tracks economic indicators, consumer confidence and national job vacancies across every industry. The organization found online job demand for all job vacancies grew by 222,700 in April, but technology jobs were the strongest, according to a May 3 statement. From that statement:
““Computer and Mathematical Science occupations also rose substantially in April, up 32,500 to 545,400. The gain reflects in part increases in demand for computer systems analysts and computer software engineers (applications).”“