Chief information officers in the US plan to add a similar amount of IT staff in the second half of 2016 as they did in the first half, according to the new Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Forecast and Local Trend Report. However, Canadian CIOs plan to hire slightly fewer workers.
The US survey found 21% of CIOs plan to expand their IT teams in the second half of the year, down from 22% in both a similar survey for the first half of 2016 and a survey for the second half of 2015.
Sixty-three percent of the CIOs surveyed said they plan to hire only for open IT roles, unchanged from the survey for the first half of 2016.
“Organizations are getting the green light on more technology projects, prompting them to make strategic hires,” said John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology. “However, technology leaders continue to struggle to find highly skilled talent in a market with low unemployment. They seek IT professionals with specialized skills, especially in the areas of cloud computing, data analytics, mobile strategies and cybersecurity.”
The US IT hiring forecast for the second half of 2016 found:
- CIOs planning to add more staff to IT departments: 21%
- CIOs planning to hire only for open IT roles: 63%
- CIOs planning to put IT hiring plans on hold: 13%
- CIOs planning to reduce their IT staff: 3%
- Don’t know future hiring plans: 0%
Among the US CIOs surveyed, 61% said it’s somewhat or very challenging to find skilled IT professionals today. Fifty-seven percent of CIOs surveyed reported network administration is among the skill sets in greatest demand within their IT departments. Desktop support and database management were also in demand, according to 55% and 53% of respondents, respectively.
CIOs in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Detroit and Raleigh, NC, were most optimistic about increasing the size of their teams.
In Canada, 13% of technology executives plan to add staff to their IT departments in the second half of 2016, down slightly from 14% who said the same in a survey representing the first two quarters of 2016. However, those planning to put IT hiring plans on hold increased to 30% from 12% in the prior survey.
The Canadian IT hiring forecast for the second half of 2016 found:
- CIOs adding more staff to IT departments: 13%
- CIOs planning to hire only for open IT roles: 57%
- CIOs planning to put IT hiring plans on hold: 30%
- CIOs planning to reduce their IT staff: 0%
- Don’t know future hiring plans: 0%
Among the Canadian CIOs surveyed, 68% said it’s somewhat or very challenging to find skilled IT professionals today. They reported the skills in greatest demand within their organizations include:
- Network administration: 41%
- Desktop support: 34%
- Database management: 30%
“Technology is a pivotal aspect of business functions,” said Deborah Bottineau, senior regional manager for Robert Half Technology. “With increasing focus on network security and digital privacy, companies are under pressure to find IT professionals capable of integrating and enhancing internal system requirements alongside compliance demands. Hiring for IT continues to be a challenge moving into the second half of the year. Businesses must move quickly with a defined recruiting strategy in place so they don't lose potential employees to better offers elsewhere.”
The hiring forecasts are based on interviews with more than 2,500 CIOs from 25 major US markets and more than 270 CIOs from major Canadian markets who were asked to provide a six-month hiring outlook.
