IT Skills Essential in Recession

An article Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal confirms a tenet of this blog: employers need IT skills especially during an economic downturn:

There are also key areas where businesses—including those that are struggling—can’t go without help, says Jon Zion, president of eastern U.S. operations at staffing firm Robert Half International Inc. "There's still work to be done," he says. "And in bad times, [some] functions become even more essential."

Information technology is one such area, says Mr. Zion. Indeed, there are more than 62,000 employment ads currently listed on the technology job site Dice.com. IT positions are plentiful—even at companies that outsource jobs overseas. Systems administrators, network security specialists and help-desk technicians are still in demand, says Mr. Zion.

As we have noted, IT is so critical in keeping businesses functioning that among the last to be fired and the first to be hired are IT pros. "Today,” says Stevens Institute of Technology IT professor Jerry Luftman, “companies are going to IT and asking them for ideas as to how IT can be leveraged to reduce the costs of other parts of business.”

Online Postings for IT Jobs Decline

No doubt the recession will take a toll on nearly all occupations, including IT. (Healthcare seems exempt, for now.) Just look at the Conference Board's numbers for November on online job postings that show a 29,500 decline for computer and math positions. Here's what the Conference Board reported (click on chart to enlarge):



But other recent reports suggest IT pros may not be as bad off as those in other occupations. Robert Half Technology foresees a net, 8% increase in IT staffing next quarter. Plus, the latest government stats show that IT employment rates remain well above those in other occupations. Indeed, the IT services sector added jobs last month while nearly every other industry had posted losses.

The main reason IT employment should remain relatively strong, as this blog has previously noted, is that businesses can't function today without IT.

What Recession?

IT recruiter Robert Half Technology's quarterly IT hiring index foresees a net 8% increase in IT hiring for the first quarter of 2009. Not bad in a recession.

Click on chart to enlarge

It's not surprising, though. Companies run on computers, and that means managers can't automatically layoff IT pros when staff levels must be reduced. Here's what Jerry Luftman, distinguished professor of at Stevens Institute of Technology, said to me in an interview earlier this week:

"In previous economic downturns, IT used to be the first place to cut, slice and dice: 'It’s expensive, no value, get rid of them.' This economic downturn is very, very different from previous ones. No, I’m not going to say that IT is not going to get impacted; it clearly will, it’s going to depend on the severity of recession. But clearly, this time is different, because now IT isn’t the first place being asked to be cut.

"Today, companies are going to IT and asking them for ideas as to how IT can be leveraged to reduce the costs of other parts of business. Innovative IT leaders are being proactive and going to the business people and saying here are some ideas you might want to consider. This is how we can work together in leveraging IT to help improve productivity, to improve processes, whatever, which in these trying times is critical as companies are trying to figure out how to reduce costs and survive during this downturn.

"It’s very, very different than previous downturns, which is excellent news ... but they better deliver because here’s an opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons, and really turnaround and take a giant leap forward. Because if IT can be successful during these trying times and help the company internally, the next logical step would be looking at more strategic initiatives externally to the paying customers."

And, I guess there are paying customers, considering the Robert Half Technology survey shows that nearly one-third of respondents from companies that plan to expand their IT staffs next quarter are doing so because of business growth. That's something you don't hear a lot about these days.