IT hiring has been on the upswing for three years running, according to Computerworld’s annual hiring survey. Today 29 percent of IT executives polled say they plan to increase their IT staffing in 2012. That’s up from 20 percent polled in 2009 and 23 percent in 2010.
Not surprisingly, the most popular skill these executives want is programming and application development, including web development and upgrading internal systems. Just over 60 percent will seek these skills, up significantly from the 44 percent who sought these same skills in the 2010 survey.
Expanded project-management skills also are high on the list, especially the ability to identify users’ needs and translate them into effective solutions that the IT team can develop. Other skills the executives mentioned included technical support and business intelligence.
Of course cloud computing and virtualization are prompting a growing number of IT staff openings in networking, VMware, data center operations and integration, according to the executives polled.


