gotoagile.com 1Q3/2011 IT and Staffing Trends in Atlanta’s Technology Community

Q3/2011 IT AND STAFFING TRENDS IN ATLANTA’S TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY

IT employment in Metro Atlanta up as overall jobs decline The number of IT jobs in Metro Atlanta continues to grow despite an overall local job market that is stagnant to the point of slightly retreating.

According to Agile, a leading Atlanta-based IT recruitment and consulting

firm, the number of IT jobs in the Metro Atlanta area grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q32011 to 92,433 jobs. For the same period, Agile esti-mates that the number of all jobs in Metro Atlanta declined 1.4 percent to about 2.23 million.

The ‘market share’ of IT jobs – that is the proportion of all jobs that are IT jobs – incrementally increased to 4.14 percent in Q32011. This ratio has been steadily growing for the past several years regardless of the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

this issueIT employment in Metro Atlanta up as

overall jobs decline

Atlanta area companies looking for highly skilled IT employees on

permanent basis

Third quarter survey results from Atlanta IT executives show mixed trends

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gotoagile.com 2Q3/2011 IT and Staffing Trends in Atlanta’s Technology Community

“Atlanta is one of the country’s lead-ing markets for IT services,” remarks Tricia Dempsey, founder and CEO of Agile. “Anecdotally, we call upon and talk with many of the region’s lead-ing IT employers, and we hear first-hand how they are increasing efforts to improve efficiency, profitability, and competitiveness. This translates into an increasing reliance on improv-ing information technology systems. These efforts mean companies need more highly skilled IT professionals.”

As one of the region’s leading IT recruitment and consulting firms, Agile’s extensive database of job openings serves as a quality indi-cator of the direction the local IT job market is heading.

Agile’s data suggests that local employers are shifting the manner in which they staff IT projects and fill IT job openings. In 2010, no clear trend emerged as companies were still adjusting their staffing priorities in

the wake of the Great Recession. By early 2011, employers acknowledged that they needed more IT profession-als to move their businesses forward, but were still unsure of the long-term economic outlook. Due to the uncer-tainty of the future, IT organizations decided to fill more of their require-ments through contract/temporary assignments, versus making longer-term commitments via contract-to-hire arrangements or hiring for permanent positions. This approach is evident

by the dramatic rise in the number of contract assignments in Q22011, while the number of contract-to-hire and permanent placement openings were somewhat steady in the first half of the year.

Perhaps as a sign of confidence in the future, the trend switched in Q32011 as employers decided to mitigate their amount of contract/temporary assignments and shifted gears in favor of recruiting more permanent staff members. However, at least one other factor could be at play to account for this change. Realizing that quality, high-skilled IT profession-als in Metro Atlanta are at a premium, local employers may feel obligated into making the commitment to fill positions on a permanent basis. The trend to hire permanent IT staff is con-firmed by data that shows a nearly 70 percent sequential increase in the number of openings for permanent IT jobs in Q3 as the number of openings to fill contract assignments declined by about 30 percent. The number of

Atlanta area companies looking for highly skilled IT employees on permanent basis

Proportion of IT Jobs in Metro Atlanta

Types of IT Job Openings

gotoagile.com 3Q3/2011 IT and Staffing Trends in Atlanta’s Technology Community

requests to fill contract-to-hire posi-tions was relatively stable with an increase of less than 10 percent.

Another important metric Agile closely monitors is the length of time it takes to locate and place the right candidate.

A ‘days-to-fill’ metric can be seen as an indication of both the quality of available candidates as well as the skill level that local employers require for new employees. This metric is not looked at in isolation since alone it does not give any significant clues about the local IT candidate market. For example, if the time it takes to locate and on-board an IT candidate is changing, it could be because: 1) the skill mix of the available IT profes-sionals has shifted or 2) employers’ needs are changing (e.g. skill sets of IT candidates) making it either easier or more difficult to recruit the right individual. But when viewed in con-junction with the actual requirements

of the jobs being filled, the time-to-fill metric can provide the best informa-tion about how the local IT employ-ment market is developing.

An analysis of our data reveals that the steady rise in the time-to-fill met-ric since late 2010 – with a dramatic rise in the latest period – is due to Agile’s clients requiring IT profession-als with advanced skills and/or unique

combinations of skills and experience. Naturally it can take a longer period of time to locate the best candidate to fit the employer’s job opening for more complex and demanding IT positions.

The length of time it may take to fill a job assignment with an interim IT contractor has been fairly steady from at least early 2010 and is averaging about one month.

Days to Fill IT Openings

Third quarter survey results from Atlanta IT executives show mixed trendsIt was a busy year for Metro Atlanta IT organizations. A survey given by Agile in October reveals that more than two-thirds of local IT executives who responded report that there were more activities and projects in 2011 than in 2010. In addition, more than half of those surveyed responded that the increase was in the 10 to 24 per-cent range. A quarter of the survey respondents said activity level was the same in 2011, and less than 10 percent said it was less.

As for 2012, the IT executives from a broad range of Atlanta’s leading employers are not as optimistic with half expecting their activity and proj-ect level in 2012 to be about the same as in 2011. However, almost 45 per-cent still expect 2012 to be busier with only about five percent believing that 2012 will be down from 2011.

The major challenges local IT execu-tives faced in 2011 were locating enough qualified IT professionals fol-lowed by feeling pressure to meet busi-ness needs and objectives, and more demand for internal IT resources.

For 2012, IT leaders are feeling pres-sure on many fronts. When asked to identify the biggest obstacle they expect to confront next year, slightly more than 40 percent of respondents said that “growing my IT organization” was at the top their list. Other chal-lenges include: securing adequate funding, recruiting enough qualified IT staff, and being able to maintain their current level of IT activity.

Their concern about fiscal matters is also evident when asked about the current state of the economy. Close to two-thirds of the IT executives

gotoagile.com 4Q3/2011 IT and Staffing Trends in Atlanta’s Technology Community

Sources: Data analysis provided by Bruce Steinberg, employment and economic expert (www.brucesteinberg.net). Atlanta IT and overall employment data were developed exclusively for Agile by Mr. Steinberg and based upon U.S. Department of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics published and unpublished data.

Watch for the Q4 Market Pulse in January 2012. If there is something you’d like us to include in the next issue, please email news@gotoagile.com

Challenges Faced in 2011

surveyed either slightly or strongly agreed with the statement that “I believe the country is now in a reces-sion” and more than 40 percent believe the country is headed for one.

When asked what is required to gen-erate job growth, more than two-thirds

believe a strategy of cutting or reduc-ing government programs and less-ening the tax burden on business is necessary. Half of the respondents think the government should reduce or stop creating regulations, and almost a third feel that efforts should increase to train the unemployed for

new jobs. Other ideas about creating new jobs such as controlling immigra-tion and other tax initiatives received little support.

What Needs to Be Done to Generate Job Growth?