Worker Confidence In Minnesota Drops Again And US IT Workers Moody

The October edition of the Hudson Employment Index is out. The national employment index is up after two down months and almost back to the level of a year ago. Although much lower than earlier in the year.

The Minneapolis and St. Paul Index took a dive for the third straight month. The Hudson Employment Index for Minneapolis-St. Paul showed:

• There was a five-point drop to 24 percent in the number of employees who expected their company to hire in the coming months. This factor has been slipping since registering 34 percent in June.
• Concern around job security rose in October, as the number of worker who indicated they were worried about losing their jobs increased two points to 21 percent.
• Compared to September when 11 percent of the work force rated their finances as “excellent,” just 9 percent made that statement in October. That figure was 13 percent as recently as August.
• The number of employees who said their financial situation was improving fell two points to 32 percent.
• Fewer workers were happy with their jobs in October (74 percent) than in September (77 percent).

The IT Index continues its roller coaster ride of one up and then one down month yet my IT friends are still doing much better than their colleagues in other areas. The Hudson Employment Index for IT workers showed:

• After skyrocketing to 80 percent in September, the number of workers saying they are satisfied with their job dropped in October to 74 percent.
• More workers expected their company to add headcount in the coming months (36 percent in October compared to 34 percent in September).  Additionally, there was a three-point drop in the number of workers who expected their company to cut staff (14 percent).
• Still, one in five workers were worried about losing their job, a three-point increase since September.

Technorati Tags: Hudson Employment Index, Minnesota Jobs, IT Jobs

Minnesota A Career, HR, And Recruiting Blog Hotbed

It is interesting how the stereotype of Midwestern values of working hard and not telling others about it holds true much of the time.

   

I had a conversation with a colleague who works at Microsoft and is very familiar with the use of recruiting blogs although he himself does not write one. I told him that Minnesota has 8 or so career related blogs that I am aware of and he was shocked to hear so many.

   

So often our area is looked at as “fly over” country. I am here to dismiss that, at least as far as the blogging goes.

 

In fact, we are working on an “unconference” of our own at the end of June. Looks like we have a cool program developing and we will likely have a well known name as a key note speaker. That is what I have come to learn as a tease, more on the “unconference” next week.

   

So who are the Minnesota bloggers writing about recruiting, being a recruiter, HR related issues, and careers in general?

   

If you know of a blog not on the list please send me an email so it can be added. Here goes:

Steven Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com has a group of blogs (eight) that you can find by clicking CollegeRecruiter.com blogs. The RSS Feed is http://www.collegerecruiter.com/weblog/index.rdf

Josh Kahn of Best Buy writes The Sourcing Riff. The RSS Feed is http://thesourcingriff.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

GL Hoffman of JobDig writes What Would Dad Say. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Wwds

Toby Dayton of JobDig writes Diggings. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Diggings

Derrick Moe of Select Matrix writes The Hire Sense. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/selectmetrix/gZUw 

HotGigs has three blogs written by various members of their team: StaffingExchange the RSS Feed is http://hotgigs.typepad.com/staffingexchange/index.rdf, HiringExchange the RSS Feed is http://hotgigs.typepad.com/hiringexchange/index.rdf, and ConsultantExchange the RSS Feed is http://hotgigs.typepad.com/consultantexchange/index.rdf

 

Nicole St. Martin of HotGigs www.hotgigs.com writes HR Search Marketing. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/nqpq

   

And of course myself writing this blog MN Headhunter. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/MNHeadhunter

   

There is another blog that has not been updated in some time, New Workforce – The Weblog of New Equities. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewWorkforce-TheWeblogOfNewEquities .

   

So there you have it.

Minnesota as a thought center on career, recruiting and HR related issues. Other than the concentration of blogs coming out of Microsoft and the Redmond area I am not aware of another part of the country with as many as we do.

Good Reading

Below are articles from recent weeks that I have not yet written about. A few posts in the coming days will be on topics like the job market for IT professionals and information for CIO’s. Until then you should find interesting information in these items:

   

Dealing With Email

-Hoarders vs. deleters, I am both depending on the day. I go through extremes with email much like blog posts. Either the Inbox is empty and everything answered, categorized, and archived or as is today I have 2000+ messages mostly answered I think, a few not open, many needing to be deleted, and a few to be archived.

-Take These Steps to Avoid Spam Purgatory, including 8 simple rules for making sure your message is received.

   

Business And The Use Of Technology

-20 Great Ideas From InformationWeek 500 Companies, there is always a lot of hype around the next tool that will change how we operate. I like to wait and see how someone uses it first. I am rarely an early adopter of the next best thing, my use of this blog for business, marketing and public relations being the exception.

   

   

List

-2006 InformationWeek 500

   

   

IT Hiring

There have been quite a few articles on the tight job market, good for the professional and bad for the employer:

-IT Job Market Looking Good, even those who have been cautiously optimistic are becoming bullish.

-Careers: IT Hiring Still Strong, CIO’s planned in 2006 4^th Quarter to hire 13%, reducing 3%.

-Building the Perfect IT Person, sure would make hiring easier.

-Panel discussion: tech getting easier, employers looking for more than just tech skills.

-Study Shows 95% of IT Pros Happy With Their Jobs, maybe I am reading this wrong but maybe they are happy with their function or what they are working on but less so with their employer.

-Three Experts' Tips for Hiring, Retaining IT Staffs, nothing earth shattering here but worth reading.

IT Salaries Are On The Way Up, 2.8% is not a significant increase but at least its in the right direction.

Older Workers More Loyal to Employers, I thought being loyal had gone out the door.

   

   

Outsourcing And Offshoring

-Outsourcing: India Skills Gap Widens, apparently India is not able to produce enough qualified talent and are now increasing training efforts and looking to recruit from abroad.

-In India, even Google finds job recruiting tough, between having the necessary skills and the competition of those that are skilled, even Google has a hard time in India.

-Indian IT recruiting goes global, Tata Consulting Services will double the number of non-Indian workers. Infosys Technologies is hiring grads form foreign universities, training them in India, and send them back home to work.

Insourcing: Is IT Heading Home?, certainly an interesting shift in favor of the in house staff.

   

   

US Versus The World

-U.S. Education, Competitive Edge Not Adding Up, hopefully the new funds for science and math will help.

   

   

For The CIO’s

-Six Rules for Great IT Project Success, going old school by using Einstein and Pareto.

-Just How Important Is IT Anyway?, and the debate goes on.

-Sink or swim: 10 steps to rescue a foundering project, I like the first one, “Stop the Project”.

-The Team at the Top, a look into the building of an IT team.

   

   

Online Social Networks

-Social Networks: Execs Use Them Too, not just for the recruiters and kids.

-Web, Wikis: Models For Business Software, Panelists Say, Wikis and an ant colony.

   

   

Web 2.0

-Web 2.0 venture capital increasing, but real success hard to find, maybe this space is not evolved enough yet to realize its money making potential.

-Bubble 2.0?, glass half full or half empty? The previous article talkes about little cash going into Web 2.0. This article talks about it pouring. This does feel like 2000.

   

   

Thoughts On Business In Silicon Valley

Can anything good come from outside the Valley?, do they drink a special kind of Kool-Aid out there?

   

   

Future Of The Web

-Warning over 'broken up' internet, a UK perspective on the issues facing the Internet.

   

   

Impact Of US Elections On Tech Industry

-Few tech changes if Democrats control Congress, written right before the election.

-New Congress Likely To Support Net Neutrality, good news if you want neutrality.

-What the Democrats' win means for tech, including net neutrality and digital copyright.

   

   

IT Certifications

-Another Nail in the IT Certification Coffin, I tend to agree that they are not what they used to be.

Minneapolis And St. Paul Job And Pay Growth, More Good News For IT

I had a client ask me to dig up some statistics on job growth and average salaries for information technology professionals. The Minnesota Department Employment and Economic Development has this web site High Growth/High Pay Occupations with up to date (2006) median annual salaries ranked by job growth.

   

Occupation, Estimated 2002 Employment, 2002-2012 Net Growth, 2006 Median Annual Salary:

   

Total, All Occupations 1,721,521 +14.9% $37,192.70

1) Postsecondary Teachers, All Other 15,106 +50.6% $50,848.60

2) Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts   3,409 +50.3% $72,013.07

3) Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software   4,363 +47.4% $81,079.74

4) Computer Software Engineers, Applications   9,685 +41.4% $78,328.28

5) Database Administrators   1,904 +41.3%  $69,949.47

6) Network and Computer Systems Administrators   3,693 +36.9% $63,797.75

9) Computer Systems Analysts   8,317 +35.0% $69,785.99

11) Computer and Information Systems Managers   5,646 +33.9% $104,755.69

14) Computer Specialists, All Other 8,433 +32.1% $65,572.43

17) Computer Support Specialists   9,180 +30.7% $45,720.97

   

Hmm, seems to me this would be a good time to be a techie in the Twin Cities.

$100,000 Jobs, Where To Find Them And What Does It Buy

CNNMoney.com with Pay differences: Same job, 10 different cities and Where the (best) 6-figure jobs are. This is very interesting to me following my trip to San Francisco. Although I had not been there before I had done quite a bit of recruiting there from 2002-2004.

   

I know the statistics about the cost of living adjustment from Minneapolis to the Bay Area but now having experienced it, oh my. Of course the thing that shocked me the most was the price of housing but that’s a post for another day.

   

Definitely worth reading if you are thinking of relocating or if like me you are recruiting in other parts of the country and candidates may be relocating.

   

Always looking for the local angle here it is:

We asked job listing sites 6FigureJobs.com and The Ladders.com to provide us with a snapshot of where they have had the greatest number of listings for six-figure jobs in the past two months.

   

Predictably, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. were in the top 10. But there were also a relatively high number of such jobs in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis and Charlotte, NC.

It should not shock anyone that I still believe that when you compare the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul with other areas of the country that this is one of the best places to be.

   

Cold weather included.

Promising Days Ahead For Minnesota College Grads

The St. Cloud State University Career Services Center has issued a report MN College Job Outlook 2007 showing a good outlook on the local job and salary prospects for the Class of 2007.

   

The report is good news and I believe the market is definitely going in the right direction but I am a little cautious on the sample of companies. I would expect companies that were hiring at a job fair in 2006 and likely attending in 2007 to be hiring. So maybe the results are a little skewed but I think overall they are close to.

   

Besides the positive  job market outlook the results show that salaries may be increasing. The flip side is that the respondents suggested that grads may want to tone down their expectations.

   

Let me give the message they want to say, Do Not Be Greedy!!!

IT Professionals Looking For New Jobs

I have not written about this in quite a few months but I used to be shocked when talking with a hiring manager or human resources professional about them adding employees.

   

I always ask something along the lines of, “While recruiting new professionals to your staff what are you doing to keep the ones you have and what are you doing to keep your competitors from hiring your staff”.

   

Nine times out of ten the look is met with a confused look. I used to be shocked by it, now I expect it.

   

Here is more evidence of why what I am asking is even more important.

   

CompTIA (Computer Technology Industry Association) released a study of 1,000+ information technology professionals that shows 58% are “looking” for a new job and of those 80% are somewhat or very active.

   

Did you hear that collective shiver from the management crowd? Wait it gets worse, or better depending on your perspective.

   

Of those looking for new gigs 60% have been with their current employer for at least three years and 52% in their roles for at least three years.

   

Remember all of those seasoned high tech workers who had elected job security and loyalty? Yep, they are the ones looking to move on.

   

Pay, little or no advancement opportunities, and new challenges are the stated reasons.

   

Let me bust this down to the simplest of levels: If you are bringing employees in the front door make sure you have the back door blocked with proper pay, work conditions, and job satisfaction. Retain your current talent and recruit your hard drive off and you can have one of the best staffs around.

   

Fail to do so and you will be lucky to maintain staffing levels and at best average talent.

Hudson Compensation And Benefits Report, IT Professionals Highlighted

Earlier this summer the Hudson Employment Index released Transforming Pay Plans: 2006 Compensation and Benefits Report. I do not remember this getting much if any print so here goes…

   

10,000 US workers from all sectors were asked polled. Here two results from the whole survey:

"Three out of four (72%) U.S. workers claim to be very or somewhat satisfied with their compensation, a large portion (44%) of the same sample say they would change their mix of cash and benefits if they could."

   

"Given their choice of unconventional benefits, most employees would select a more flexible work schedule (33 percent) or additional family benefits (22 percent), including parental leaves and personal days, over job training (13 percent) or supplemental insurance (16 percent)."

They have the compensation package split in three areas:

   

Cash - salaries, bonuses, commissions, variable pay

   

Benefits - health, retirement, paid time off

   

Non-financial – work/life balance, rewards, recognition, flex-time, career development, supplemental insurance

   

More on this can be found in the executive summary.

   

As for the information technology professionals, if you are trying to recruit new staff and retain the ones you have there is some good information. For the most part the IT respondents were inline with the overall average except for:

In general, how satisfied are you with the compensation and benefits you currently receive? IT 78% vs. All 72%.

Will your overall cash compensation this year be higher than last year, lower than last year, or about the same as last year? Answer “higher”. IT 57% vs. All 41%.

   

When was the last time you received a raise? Answer “< 6 months”. IT 46% vs. All 33%.

Do you participate in your company’s health insurance plan? Answer “Yes”. IT 84% vs. All 62%.

Which of the following best describes your retirement plan at work? Answer “Employer Matches or Contributes”. IT 71% vs. All 47%.

Those in IT had a higher percentage of raises based on their performance than others.

   

Over all IT professionals are satisfied, 78%, with their compensation than the average, 72%.

   

So what does this mean? Salary used to be the main compensation driver for most IT people. Now there are other things like paid-time off and flexible schedules.

   

This is good news for employers who may not have the biggest budgets but have the ability to take care of their employees in other ways.

June '06 Job Scene, National

Today the June employment numbers were released showing a much weaker than expected increase of 121,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remaining at 4.6%. The 121,000 jobs is a smaller number than the ADP National Employment Report which reported private-sector employers created an estimated 368,000 jobs in June.

    

Winners:

Government +31,000

Professional/Business +25,000

Health Care +19,000

Manufacturers +15,000

Mining +6,000

   

Losers:

Retailers -7,000

Construction -4,000

   

Average hourly earnings were up .5% from the estimated .3%. Wages are up 3.9% over the previous 12 months.

   

National job gains:

December ’05, 145,000

January ’06, 154,000 (revised) 170,000 (first reported)

February ’06, 200,000 (revised again) 225,000 (revised) 243,000 (first reported) 210,000 (consensus number)

March ’06, 175,000 (revised again) 200,000 (revised) 211,000 (first reported) 190,000 (consensus number)

April ’06, 126,000 (revised) 138,000 (first reported) 200,000 (consensus number)

May ’06, 92,000 (revised) 75,000 (first reported) 175,000 (consensus number)

June ’06, 121,000 (first reported) 185,000 (consensus number)

   

National unemployment rates:

December ’05, 4.9%

January  ’06, 4.7%

February ’06, 4.8%

March ’06, 4.7%

April ’06, 4.7%

May ’07, 4.6%

June ’07, 4.6%

Tech Employment 2.0

Over the next week I am going to be writing a series of posts on the state of the job market for technology professionals. Recently there have been plenty of surveys, news stories, anecdotes and pr releases that are starting to paint a picture of hiring circa 1999, right before the insanity hit.

   

I am not suggesting that there is a coming bubble but I will be suggesting that the market is clearly heating up.

   

For companies that are being proactive in their hiring and offering reasonable benefits and positive work place conditions this is good news as the candidate pool is looking ot make a move.

   

For companies stuck in the early 2000’s mentality of “you should be happy you have a job here” that sound you hear is your staff boxing up their personal items. They may not be on their way out the door but they are one job ad or one phone call from a friend away from taking the box with them at the end of the day.

   

I hope it does not get as crazy as the dot-com era. As we learned that was unsustainable and frankly unwarranted. Not all technologists are looking for the cappuccino machine and afternoon foosball tournaments but they clearly are looking for challenging opportunities, better pay, more flexibility, and have a seat at the table when business decisions are made.

   

It does need to be pointed that some regions of the country are further down this road than others and that some parts of the tech industry are still slowly recovering. Stating that, some generalizations can and will be made.