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QUARTERLY MARKET REVIEW
Second Quarter 2007
Since our inception in 1998, Q&A Recruiting has earned a solid reputation with both our clients and employees as the recruiting firm of choice in the
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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 almost 240,000 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.” Dallas area employers added 6,500 positions during the month, the most of any metro area in Texas. Job gains were broadly based across industries, with Professional and Business Services and Financial Services leading the way. The two industries added 1,700 and 1,400 jobs, respectively—and their growth is helping bolster demand for office space. Fort Worth’s economy maintained its strong growth in April. Its payroll gains totaled 4,300 during the month, the second-largest increase among metro areas in Texas. Professional & Business Services continued to surge forward with 10 consecutive months of job growth, gaining more than 5,000 positions in May. Accounting firms report very strong activity. Demand for specialty services is robust, but growth in audit and consultancy services has leveled off. Temporary service firms reported a slight softening of orders to some manufacturers, but demand was hefty to supply workers to accounting and IT services. Commercial lending continues to increase and is above last year's solid gains. The labor market remains very tight for workers with specialized skills, such as CPAs, accountants, MBAs, engineers and those with experience in commercial construction and the energy industry. 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. Trade, Transportation & Utilities recorded employment gains for the sixth consecutive month. “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 Tech Skills in Demand A study by Dice.com (www.dice.com), a leading job board that's exclusively for techies, says that 94% of tech professionals are happy in their work, and 88% would recommend a tech career to others. They're far more concerned with issues like keeping their skills up-to-date (82%) than with outsourcing (41%) or layoffs (37%). The number of college students majoring in computer science has dropped 40% in the past decade. Meanwhile, the tech job market has come roaring back almost to its pre-2001 heights, and skilled techies can pick and choose among job offers. But as with any job boom, some geographical locations, and some sets of skills, are hotter than others. Based on the number of openings posted on its site earlier this month, here is Dice.com's list of the top 10 metropolitan areas for tech jobs: 1. New York/New Jersey - 11,044 postings
2. Washington, D.C. - 7,971 postings
3. Silicon Valley - 6,755 postings
4. Los Angeles - 4,546 postings
5. Chicago - 4,241 postings
6. Boston - 4,167 postings
7. Philadelphia - 3,156 postings
8. Dallas - 3,084 postings9. Atlanta - 2,987 postings
10. Seattle - 2,309 postings
The skills most in demand based on the number of job listings on the site: among operating systems, Windows and Unix, with 16,573 and 14,870 job postings respectively. Oracle database experience is wanted for 17,354 jobs, and SQL for 14,880. The hottest programming languages are J2EE/Java, with 13,690 job postings, and C/C++ with 11,862.
Are You Being Paid Competitively? This graduation season is a joyful one for those management information systems/business data processing grads who earned a respectable increase of 4.9 percent. This brings their average national starting salary offer to $46,966, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Computer science graduates saw their average offer bump up 2.5 percent to $52,177. Despite the modest nature of the increase, this is positive news for computer science graduates: This year's crop of computer science majors posted increases in the past 2 surveys; in comparison, their counterparts from the Class of 2006 saw their average offer decrease in both reports. As a value-added service to our clients, Q&A Recruiting offers a free local Salary Survey. This data is specifically compiled for the Dallas/Fort Worth area in the disciplines of accounting, finance, tax, information technology 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.
Finding Good References When You Can't Ask Your Boss If you have been fired or quit a job on shaky terms, the prospect of securing positive references can seem daunting. Employed job hunters face a similar predicament when they need someone to vouch for them but want to keep their search hidden from their immediate boss. Whatever the circumstances of their job hunt, professionals with a track record of success needn't be at a loss for supporters. Here are some tips for winning rave reviews when the usual sources aren't available. Source: CareerJournal.com
Announcing Our New Houston Location! Q&A Recruiting is pleased to announce the launch of our new Headquartered in the Galleria area, SNI Houston will offer both direct hire and contract recruiting services in Accounting and Finance effective July 1st, 2007. For more information contact Mark McConnell, Managing Director for the
Professional Organizations in DFW
Contact UsIf 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, 14241 Dallas Parkway, Suite 550, Dallas TX 75254. (972) 720-1020. Comments or questions may be sent to Lynn Mazur, Director of Marketing, at lynn@qarecruiting.com.
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