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TEKsystems: Increasing optimism in IT spending landscape

November 05, 2013

Information technology leaders expect increased spending in 2014, including hiring and some salary increases, according to TEKsystems’ annual survey of IT leaders released today.

Eighty-eight percent expect their organization’s IT budget to stay the same or grow; 62 percent expect positive growth, up from 48 percent in last year’s survey. Only 12 percent expect decreases, down from 16 percent last year.

Eighty-one percent expect salaries to increase, up from 55 percent last year, and 71 percent expect changes up to 5 percent.

“In comparison to last year, IT leaders have significantly shifted their outlooks to be positive overall in IT budget allocations as well as their expectations for hiring and salary increases,” said TEKsystems Research Manager Jason Hayman. “Most interesting is that there seems to be greater demand for the core skill sets of programming and application development and software engineering. IT leaders indicate exceptional talent has become harder to find in these areas and have adjusted their salary strategies accordingly.”

According to the survey, contingent workers comprise approximately one in four IT personnel. The hiring rate for each type of worker is expected to grow at nearly the same rate with 47 percent of IT leaders expecting the number of permanent hires to increase compared to 46 percent of IT leaders expecting temporary hires to increase. Programmers and developers, architects, and software engineers were the most difficult IT roles to find.

The survey asked which IT roles are the most critical for organizational success. The top-five roles included:

  1. Programmers and developers
  2. Project managers
  3. Help desk and technical support
  4. Software engineers
  5. Architects

TEKsystems polled nearly 900 IT leaders (CIOs, IT vice presidentss, IT directors, IT hiring managers) in September on the current state of IT spending, skills needs and workforce issues as well as expectations for 2014. TEKsystems, part of the Allegis Group, is the largest IT staffing firm in the United States.