Computerworld's annual Forecast survey of 353 IT executives finds a 45 percent increase in hiring expectations over the past two years, but the most important information to come out of the study is the list of skills that they need the most going forward. Here are the top nine:
  1. Programming and Application Development: 61% plan to hire for this skill in the next 12 months.
  2. Project Management: 44 percent plan to hire.
  3. Help Desk/Technical Support: 35 percent plan to hire.
  4. Networking: 35 percent plan to hire.
  5. Business Intelligence: 23 percent plan to hire.
  6. Data Center: 18 percent plan to hire.
  7. Web 2.0: 18 percent plan to hire.
  8. Security: 17 percent plan to hire.
  9. Telecommunications: 9 percent plan to hire.
The biggest surprise may be that security is so low, and is actually trending down from a 32 percent plan-to-hire last year. Why a bit of mystery given how prevalent cybersecurity issues have become in recent years.