Good News, Bad News on Tech Hiring Front

If you're a techie looking to get a job or change jobs, 2005 may be your year. According to Business Week, 35,000 tech jobs were created last year, with 10,000 jobs created in December alone. BW quotes Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, as saying, "We're picking up the pace as we enter 2005... Tech companies have cash, capital, and confidence. They're both able and willing to hire." Zandi predicts the tech industry will add 214,000 new jobs this year -- the largest increase since 2000, and bringing the total number of tech jobs to the number that existed in 1999 (but off the peak reached in 2001).

However, no one expects a return to the boom in hiring seen in the late '90s. And wages are rising very slowly, if at all. In fact, a poll conducted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) found a 1.5% decline in median wages. Outsourcing to China and India is cited as the primary reason for lower wages.

Sources: Business Week, Lockergnome