Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest technology news and information.

What Tech Skills Are Hot for 2006?

Developers, security experts and project managers will be in demand

By Thomas Hoffman

December 27, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Whether you're looking for a job or looking to fill one, expect hiring to heat up this year, driven by small but consistent gains in IT budgets. And if you're a job seeker with the right skills, 2006 could be your big year.

Despite the notion that hordes of U.S. IT jobs are being sent offshore, in reality, less than 5% of the 10 million people who make up the U.S. IT job market had been displaced by foreign workers through 2004, says Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Inc., a New York-based online jobs service. The numbers of jobs posted on Dice.com from January through September for developers, project managers and help desk technicians rose 40%, 47% and 45%, respectively, compared with the same period in 2004, says Melland.

Check out our updated 8 Hottest Skills for '08.

In fact, an exclusive Computerworld survey revealed that two of the top four skills IT executives will hire for in the coming year are perennially linked with outsourcing, namely, application development (ranked first) and IT help desk skills (ranked fourth). Information security skills ranked second, and project management came in third.

Here's what staffing experts have to say about the demand in these hot skills areas.

1. Desperate For Developers

There's a lot of talk about developer jobs being sent overseas, but "most of the stuff that's going offshore is low-level coding jobs," says Craig Symons, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. Over the past year, companies have started working through their backlog of IT projects. As a result, says Symons, demand for developers with .Net and Java skills has increased, as has the need for business analysts and IT relationship managers who work with business managers to understand their divisions' requirements.

Case in point: An employer that was working with Talenthire.com, a job placement service in Atlanta, was recently negotiating salary terms with an entry-level C++ and .Net developer. The technician, who had graduated from college in 2004 and probably started his career making $40,000-plus per year, quickly moved up in salary by about $10,000, says Mike Veronesi, a managing partner at Talenthire.com. After Talenthire.com's customer offered the candidate $60,000, he demanded $62,500. "In this marketplace, those people are just tough to get," says Veronesi.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

Additional Resources

Xerox

Win a color printer!

By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!

Microsoft

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 today.

Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

Informatica 9 Launch: Transform your Business. Transform your world.

LIVE Nov 10, 2009 12:00 PM ET

Architecting Business Intelligence Applications for Change: The Open Solution

LIVE Nov 12, 2009 02:00 PM ET

Chiquita selects Workday's fresh approach to Human Capital Management
A fresh approach to meet IT and HR objectives.

Usability Is Everything
Download this short video! Provided by Workday.

Supporting Employees Anytime, Anywhere
Download this White Paper Now!

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Download this short video! Provided by Workday

Natural User Interface for Enterprise Applications
Download this Complimentary White Paper! Provided by Workday.

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Download this short Video! Provided by Workday.

A Truly Global HCM System
Download this Complimentary White Paper! Provided by Workday.

Top to Bottom Performance Management Excellence at the City of Chicago
View now.

Craft a Strategy to Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership
Download this Complimentary White Paper! Provided by Workday.

Effectively Implementing Datacenter Automation
Effectively select and deploy the best datacenter automation solution today!

All White Papers | All Webcasts

Computerworld Reports

8 Questions To Ask About Your Intrusion-Security Solution

Computerworld Technology Briefings IT Service Management

Computerworld Briefing - Analytics: The Art and Science of Better

All Computerworld Reports

	CareerMail
	Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
	Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
	The Weekly Top 10
	Cloud Computing

resource center