Meanwhile, other employment indicators appear mixed as U.S. businesses struggle with lingering recession.

A new IT hiring survey suggests the next six months will produce many new jobs for IT professionals as companies accelerate investment in new technologies and pick where they left off during the recession to complete projects that were put on hold.

Conducted by Monster.com on behalf of Technisource, one of the largest technology services providers in North America, the 2010 IT HIRE Intelligence Survey found that more than three quarters, or 78 percent, of human resources managers or recruiters with responsibility for recruiting technology positions are planning to hire IT workers in the next six months. The foremost positions that hiring managers are looking to fill are application- and infrastructure-related positions, the survey report says.

"This new report clearly shows that the IT hiring picture is bright, and there seems to be a need for large amounts of IT professionals over the next six months," said Michael Winwood, president of Technisource. "Many companies are not only starting to invest in projects that were previously put on hold, but also new technologies," he said. "To ensure these get implemented efficiently, companies need to invest in additional talent." Winwood concluded that many companies are starting to focus on growth opportunities "instead of basic survival mode."

Winwood's conclusion may be based on the fact that 63 percent of the respondents said they were either "somewhat confident" or "very confident" that the economy would improve over the next six months. About a quarter of the respondents, or 22 percent, said they were "neutral" on that question, and 15 percent were more pessimistic. Interestingly, 76 percent reported that they were somewhat or very confident that their companies will improve during the next six months.

The survey polled some 245 HR managers or recruiters during a nearly month-long period between April 16 and May 13 this year. Monster does not claim that the survey is scientifically valid, however, and says that respondents were randomly selected from among those who have "agreed to receive communication from Monster." Therefore, no estimated sampling error was provided.

Meanwhile, as we go to press, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released last month's national jobs and unemployment data. The nation added 431,000 jobs in May, largely due to hiring for the U.S. Census. Private employers added only 41,000 jobs, "a disappointment compared to the 180,000 positions forecasters had expected, suggesting the pace of economic healing has slowed." The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent in May, however, from 9.9 percent in April. (The April 2010 unemployment rates actually were higher in most large metropolitan areas—with a few exceptions—than they were in April of last year.)

Locally in California, there is some IT hiring going on, but it's very specialized, according to Carole Comeau, vice president of programs for the OCEAN User Group and a recruiter who heads her own company, Carole Comeau Consulting.

"A year ago, nobody was hiring," says Comeau. "Today, companies that held off for as long as they possibly could are starting to hire, but it's in highly specialized areas. Not only are they asking for experience in very specific software products but in the latest release of that product as well."

Smarter Cities Update

Meanwhile, IBM continues to plan for the future and focus on parts of the world where economic growth is strongest. Last week, IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano met with Chinese government and industry leaders at the Smarter Cities forum in Shanghai, China, to discuss an in-depth focus on Asia and the world's growth markets. 

IBM has been continually working on ways to approach and change how cities tackle serious urban issues to improve the overall quality of life for citizens. Last year, IBM proposed the "Smarter City" initiative to Chinese regional officials to develop and improve the way Dongying, China, operates. Additionally, Shenyang, China, embarked on a "smart city" collaboration last September with the help of IBM and China's Northeastern University.

In tune with its Smarter Cities efforts, IBM has announced the development of CityOne, a new "serious game" to help business partners, students, and customers discover how to make cities and their industries smarter by solving real-world business and environmental problems. Details of the new IBM game were revealed at the IMPACT 2010 conference last month in Las Vegas.

Experts predict population in the world's cities will double by 2050. Even today, cities are consuming an estimated 75 percent of the world's energy, emitting more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases and losing as much as 20 percent of their water supply due to infrastructure leaks. As urban populations expand, civic leaders will face a plethora of challenges as they modify their infrastructures to meet their needs, according to IBM.

The "sim-style" CityOne game is set to be released this fall. To view the trailer and learn more about CityOne, visit www.ibm.com/cityone.

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..