IT recruitment to grow as technology becomes essential in workplaces

An increasing number of people are using computers during their working day. Technology has become interlinked with business, so the majority of a workforce must now have a good understanding of IT in order to perform their required tasks, regardless of their job title.

David Foote, CEO at research firm Foote Partners LLC, told SearchCIO.com: "The role of technology is now so pervasive that managing it is no longer entrusted to one group, but instead is split among every department, function, line of business and product group." Every worker is now required to understand and use technology if they are to complete their daily activities.

However this shift towards hybrid jobs, where staff must utilise IT skills within their work routine, will not result in a decline in IT recruitment. Companies still need highly specialised IT staff to perform elaborate and complex tasks on servers, maintenance and data centres. Businesses will still be advertising software development jobs, IT security jobs and security systems jobs, and IT staff generally will still be very much in demand.

This shift into an era where the majority of staff now use technology throughout their day means that there will also be additional jobs available within the IT sector, alongside the traditional occupations. Not only will companies have an internal IT department specialising in niche technology issues, but they will also have to recruit IT staff that focus on consulting and teaching other staff members on how to use technology correctly.

Report shows slow growth in recruitment

A new report has shown that recruitment is continuing to increase in the UK, but at a much slower pace than earlier this year. Companies are beginning to hire fewer employees as they remain fearful regarding the instability of the economy.

The information provided by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and accountancy firm KPMG has indicated that permanent and temporary placements are increasing at the slowest rate since November 2011. The Report on Jobs uses a scale which suggests that anything above 50 shows growth within recruitment. It found that the present number for vacancies is just 54.3. This is considerably lower than 55.9, which was the reported figure for June.

Job market is performing well

The fact that recruitment is continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace, indicates that it is not a hopeless time for job searchers. Kevin Green, a partner at REC, said: "These figures show that the jobs market is continuing to perform well despite general weakness in the UK economy." He went on to state that: "We have now had two years of continuous growth and employers are still continuing to hire staff, albeit not in the numbers needed to radically reduce unemployment."

The engineering, construction and IT sectors are continuing to recruit a steady flow of workers. There are regular postings for.net jobs, for example, as the IT sector still requires thousands of professionals in order to keep up with growing demands. While the job market may only be slowly increasing, it is clearly still heading in the right direction and certain sectors are actually recruiting lots of employees.

Figures from the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI) show an increase in online activity during April 2011.

The MEI statistics indicate a one per cent rise in workplaces filling positions using the internet against the same figure from one month earlier in March. Against the same number from April 2010, this month shows a 14 per cent overall increase.

One of the most striking results was a 30 per cent rise in IT recruitment online during the last 12 months, which covers emerging sectors such as IT security jobs. The south-west and East Anglia recorded the greatest gains.

According to Monster UK & Ireland spokesperson Isabelle Ratinaud, this is partly due to an "upward trend" in the number of skills-based jobs in the IT sector. She also indicated that the MEI shows a sustained improvement across the entire UK job market.

She said: "Though public sector opportunities continue to decline in line with reduced public spending, there are many industry sectors that are demonstrating ongoing, increasing job demand."

The figures suggest good news for people looking for work within the technological sector, such as those eyeing IT security jobs and software development jobs, and is in-line with Europe-wide positivity in the market.

The Monster European Employment Index recently showed a 26 per cent annual growth rate. Alan Townsend, vice president of sales readiness and business operations for Monster Europe, called the rise encouraging.

Monster's index is an aggregate measure of changes in job listings across the industry, including online recruitment services.