 |
||
QUARTERLY MARKET REVIEW
First Quarter 2007
Q&A Recruiting is the largest locally-based search firm in Dallas/Fort Worth specializing in Information Technology, Accounting, Finance, Tax and Human Resources. Our on-line quarterly newsletter helps you stay current with local industry news and hiring trends.
|
||
To ensure that you continue to receive emails from Q&A Recruiting, please add industrynews@qarecruiting.com to your address book today.
If you haven't done so already, click to confirm your interest in receiving our free publications, including our DFW Salary Survey and future Quarterly Newsletters.
Local Economy and Employment Trends The May seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent, its lowest point since the current series began in 1976. The unemployment rate dropped from 4.2 percent in April and 5.0 percent a year ago. Seasonally adjusted employment in Texas grew by more than 22,000 jobs in May, with 10 industries gaining jobs from the previous month. Texas employers now have added 239,000 jobs over the past 12 months. “Sustained job growth and a strong Texas economy have driven the unemployment rate to this historic low,” said Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Chair Diane Rath. “Texas employers are prospering which means more opportunities for working Texans.” Professional & Business Services continued to surge forward with 10 consecutive months of job growth, gaining more than 5,000 positions in May. Education & Health Services showed the largest over-the-month increase since last summer, gaining almost 5,000 jobs. The industry has now logged 38 months of job growth since January 2004. “Texas employers are making enormous strides across a wide spectrum of industries,” said TWC Commissioner Representing Employers Ron Lehman. “Our state’s annual job growth rate at 2.4 percent now outpaces the U.S. rate at 1.4 percent.” Sources: Texas Workforce Commission, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank How to Start a Confidential Job Search If you've got the job jitters or are feeling burned out, it may be time to lay the groundwork for a new employment search. For most professionals, it's likely to be easier to find a new job while you still have one. Here are ways to get the feelers out. Source: CareerJournal.com
Are You Being Paid Competitively? Pay for non-certified IT skills grew 8 percent in 2006, while pay for certified skills showed flat growth, according to the most recent edition of the Hot Technical Skills and Certification Pay Index released Feb. 12 by IT workforce research firm Foote Partners. Fifty-two percent of the 60,000 IT professionals surveyed for the report received some form of tech skills pay as part of their overall compensation, the highest in the seven-year tracking history of the report. Among non-certified IT skills, professionals with SAP specialization raked it in 2006, their salaries increasing 15.2 percent. Other big gainers included Web and e-commerce development, gaining 10.5 percent and messaging, e-mail and group ware and application development platforms, both increasing their base pay by 7.3 percent. Over the previous two years, average certification pay grew 3.2 percent, while pay for non-certified IT skills grew 13.3 percent. However, one group of certificationsthose focused on Web developmentshowed growth. Novell's CIP (Certified Internet Professional) and Prosoft Master CIW Administrator accounted for 8 percent of the base salaries of these IT professionals, the report found. Furthermore, gold-standard certifications such as PMP (Project Management Professional), CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) and CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional) continue to be highly valued by employers, rewarding certificate-holders with pay premiums of worth 10 to 16 percent of their base pay. Other exceptions to the loss of salary value of IT certifications were consultants, as many companies still expected to see a level of certification in the talent assigned by outsourcers. As a value-added service to our candidates, Q&A Recruiting offers a free local Salary Survey. This data is specifically compiled for the Dallas/Fort Worth area in the disciplines of information technology, accounting, finance, tax, and human resources. The Q&A Salary Survey is calculated through a combination of information gathered from local job searches and market input from clients and candidates. Click here to request your 2007 DFW Salary Survey.
Specialists vs. Generalists In these days of specialization, it can be more and more difficult for some to see and keep sight of the bigger picture at work. The drive toward even more specialization in business continues, with the majority of business leaders saying their department or organization would be more effective if more of their subordinates were more specialist than generalist. More specialized knowledge and experience becomes less important the higher your position. Executives need exposure and knowledge of a breadth of topics, while lower levels need more detailed knowledge of a narrower range of topics. Source: CIO.com
The Art of Influencing Your Boss Knowledge workers are people who know more about what they are doing than their boss does. Many knowledge workers (especially those with technical backgrounds) have years of education and experience that enable them to come up with great ideas. Yet this same group has almost no training in how to "influence up" and ensure that their great ideas actually get accepted. Great ideas that are never implemented don't make much of an impact on the organization. The guidelines listed below are intended to help you do a better job of influencing your upper management. They won't always ensure your success, but they will definitely improve your odds! Source: BusinessWeek.com
Professional Organizations in DFWFollowing are links to local professional networking organizations to help you stay current in your field. We appreciate learning about other associations that you have found to be beneficial, so please share that information by sending an email to lynn@qarecruiting.com. Information Technology: North Dallas.net Users Group Dallas.net Users Group Java Metroplex Users Group BEA Metroplex Users Group North Texas PC Users Group North Texas MS Developer's SIGs NTLUG - North Texas Linux Users Group Metro Midrange Systems Association Dallas Oracle User Group Dallas / Fort Worth Cisco Users Group Dallas / Fort Worth UNIX Users Group Mid-Cities PC Users Group North Texas SQL Server Users Group Technology Executives Networking Group (TENG)
Contact Us If you are receiving this email, someone from the Q&A Recruiting team has met you or your firm through a business interaction. If this quarterly newsletter has reached you in error, please allow us to apologize for our mistake. We hope that you discover value in our Quarterly Market Review and feel free to share this with colleagues with similar interests. Please let us know if you wish to receive future newsletters at a different email address than where you received this. We encourage you to subscribe to our other free publications by clicking here. If you prefer not to receive our future quarterly newsletters, please reply with "Unsubscribe" typed in the subject line in order for us to remove your email address from our distribution list. This newsletter is published internally by Q&A Recruiting, |
.JPG)
