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Winter 2003 Job Survey: Summary of Results |
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| The purpose of the New York City Area IT Survey is to identify employment
and technology trends in the local software/IT industry. The survey measures
New York's hiring climate as well as its most popular technologies and
platforms. |
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| NYC Area Employees |
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| With a total of 124 companies responding, an unprecedented 20%+
of our membership participated in this survey between February and April
2003. More than 60% of these companies employ 10 people or less and over
80% employ 25 people or less. 17% indicated having 25 or more employees,
almost half of which were in the 100+ category. |
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(Note: The values for the following survey result categories are based on
an average of importance, where the importance values are between zero
and two, two being ranked most important. See survey results for the
actual Index computations.)
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| Important Tools, Technologies and Training Requirements |
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| Member companies offer a variety of services. As usual, software application
products, custom programming, and Web site development predominated in our
sample. The following platforms and tools were of particular importance
to these businesses: |
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- Windows NT/2000
- JavaScript
- SQL Server
- XML
- Java
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Other popular technologies included the UNIX operating system, Microsoft
ASP and .NET frameworks, Oracle, and the C++ programming language. Our
members make heavy use of the leading operating system and database platforms,
with a slight emphasis on Microsoft products. Web page scripting languages
were of particular importance, with more hardcore programming languages
making a good showing as well. Of particular note is the continued surge
in the popularity of Linux, which hit a historical high of 1.15 compared
to 1.00 and 0.93 in the preceding two surveys.
The importance of software products and applications in our community was
underscored by the respondents' interest in training programs. The most popular
subject areas were project management methodology, programming, quality assurance,
product management, and systems analysis. |
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| Company Funding Sources |
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| At approximately 12%, the number of companies funded by venture capital
has remained stable since our last survey. |
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Hiring
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| Hiring Status |
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| (Note: The Hiring Status Index results are calculated with -1 responses
indicating that companies are laying off, +1 responses indicating hiring,
and 0 indicating no change in staffing. The survey responses were averaged
to produce the Hiring Status Index results.) |
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Hiring statistics for graphic designers and Web developers remained
soft, scoring the lowest numbers so far at 0.05 and 0.07, respectively.
Hiring of network personnel remained soft at 0.07 and hiring of technical
support personnel softened further in our latest survey from 0.08 to 0.05.
Demand for programmers, always one of the strongest areas in our sample,
fell slightly to 0.18 from 0.20. Overall technical hiring weakened from
0.24 to 0.18, while general hiring strengthened from 0.17 to 0.22. Demand
for interns continued to edge upwards from 0.33 to 0.35.
Generally speaking, the hiring statistics are off their lows from the
Winter 2002 Survey, but do not demonstrate a follow-through from the improvement
reflected in the Summer 2002 survey. We might conclude that the job market
has compensated for any over-reaction in favor of downsizing and hiring
freezes, but has not yet seen conditions that warrant a resurgence of
hiring plans. |
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| Skills Importance |
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| Hiring authorities continued to underscore the desirability of people
who communicate and interview well, have a good educational background
(especially a computer science or other college degree), and some industry
experience. While our survey does not indicate as much emphasis on technical
certifications as a hiring criterion, there was still a significant interest
in Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE), Solution Developer (MCSD)
and Sun Java certifications. |
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| Sources |
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| The popularity of recruiters as a source of potential hires continued
to slip as employers turn to less costly methods. The popularity of newspapers
and job fairs stayed in the basement, presumably because these are labor-intensive
sources from which the signal-to-noise ratio has deteriorated significantly
as the market has been flooded with unemployed people. Company Web sites
remained a relatively routine source of referrals. Our latest survey reiterated
the popularity of personal and professional networks as a source of job
candidates, as both maintained their top rankings by a comfortable margin.
The popularity of internship programs continued to climb, scoring a respectable
0.95. |
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