Still hope for IT job seekers

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August 13, 2001 (Computerworld) -- Although recent layoffs and economic figures signal a gloomy outlook for IT job seekers, some candidates may find a few bright spots if they concentrate their job hunts in the right places.

Within segments of certain industries—such as oil and gas, retail and financial services—employers are still eager to attract IT talent.

With resource-intensive supply chain and customer relationship management projects under way, Longs Drug Stores Corp. in Walnut Creek, Calif., for instance, is looking to fill 15 to 20 IT openings, said Dave Klinzman, vice president of IT operations.

	By the Numbers: The total number of job cuts across all U.S. industries this year is 983,337. Job cuts for all of last year totaled 613,960. The previous high was 677,795 cuts in 1998.

Though cost constraints have delayed hiring for some positions, the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. in Warren, N.J., plans to hire "tens" of IT workers with specialized application development skills this year, said Gerald Giesler, a Chubb senior vice president. These positions include midlevel Java developers and database administrators, he said.

But he said hiring is certainly less frenetic than it was a year ago. "We're probably openly recruiting half as many [IT workers] as last year at this time," said Giesler.

In the Houston area, the oil and gas, energy and consumer retail sectors are still hungry for tech workers, according to Shawn Galloway, a Houston-based senior recruiter at eCalton Inc., based in Vero Beach, Fla. Skills in demand include networking and Windows-based experience. But many of these positions are targeted at contractors, and IT workers "just can't be as picky as they used to be," Galloway added.

Recent workforce studies paint a somewhat muddy picture as to whether the economy is headed for a recovery. For instance, July saw a record number of job cuts, with 205,975 payroll positions pared, according to Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

But those numbers haven't put a dent in the national unemployment rate, which remained steady at 4.5% last month, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Though the economy isn't headed for a recession, expect it to "remain sluggish for the next two quarters," said Wes Basel, an economist at Economy.com Inc. in West Chester, Pa.

Job seekers would do well to avoid technology and manufacturing firms, because they have announced the largest number of layoffs since the beginning of the year, the Challenger report said. "We're not seeing a bottom right now" among companies in these sectors, said John Challenger, the company's CEO.

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