Main image of article November: Colleges See More Computer Science Majors
IT Hiring Market Report - November 2011 The Dice IT Hiring Market Report is a roundup of news related to technology hiring, compiled from various sources by the Dice Editorial Staff.
. Empty Blue Chairs The Computer Science Pipeline Grows High school seniors are showing renewed interest in Computer Science as an undergraduate major. And why not? While most of the economy remains stagnant, computer science grads are getting hired at good salaries.
  • Carnegie Mellon expects to receive 4,000 applications in the area this academic year, though it will only accept only 400 and enroll about 140. That’s up from 3,500 applications in 2011 and 3,200 in 2001.
  • Other schools report an increase in applications of 15 to 21 percent.
  • Nationally, the number of undergraduates in Computer Science rose 10 percent in 2010. The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded rose 9 percent, to 12,500.
Tech Employment Ticks Up Again The latest IT employment numbers demonstrated more month-over-month growth. The monthly index by TechServe Alliance showed the number of IT jobs increased by more than 7,000 in October, rising to 4,064,500. That’s up by some 87,000 jobs from October 2010, or 2.2 percent. CIOs and CTOs Are Getting Less Techie Corporate IT executives are spending more time on business issues and less worrying about day-to-day operations of data centers or networks. It’s a trend that’s been “gaining steam for years," according to IT employment analyst David Foote. A survey by the Society for Information Management found that 84 percent of CIOs, and 20 percent of CTOs, were "always" engaged in the allocation of IT infrastructure resources. The survey’s author, Prof. Jerry Luftman of the Stevens Institute of Technology, believes “this shows confusion about the CIO and their role in IT infrastructure.” As for CTO involvement, he calls those figures “even nuttier.” Silicon Valley as a Smart Grid Center Silicon Valley and the broader Bay Area will be national leaders in the development of smart grid technologies, says a report from Collaborative Economics. In 2009, there were 12,560 smart grid jobs in the Bay Area, up from 5,480 in 1995, a jump of 129 percent. Area businesses providing related products and services grew 139 percent during the same period, from 280 companies to 670. The Department of Energy wants the electric grid to be more reliable, secure and efficient, and local telecom and software experts are key to making that happen. Smart grid-related industries include energy storage technology as well as electricity transmission and distribution. China Is the World’s Second Largest App Market Another reason to keep an eye on China. According to mobile-analytics firm Flurry, China has quickly become the world’s second largest market for mobile apps. Apple’s iPhone is still a relatively small player there, with 16 percent of the smartphone market and 3 percent of the mobile market overall. Meanwhile, Android phones making huge headway. China has 952 million cellphone users, and has tallied a nearly nine-fold increase in mobile-app usage since January.