IT Budgets and Job Prospects Looking Strong for 2012

While many U.S. industries are still trying to buck the economic downturn that has affected the country over the past few years, recent data shows that the U.S. technology industry has been resilient during these tough times – adding jobs in 2011, and remaining poised for significant growth in 2012. According to the TechAmerica Foundation, the U.S. tech industry added 115,000 jobs in the first half of 2011, which nearly erases all IT job losses that occurred in the industry in 2010. Matthew Kazmierczak, executive director of the TechAmerica Foundation, attributes much of this year’s job growth to cloud computing, cybersecurity, mobile devices and applications.

The results of a recent poll conducted by the Society of Information Management (SIM) suggest that IT may very well continue its hot streak into 2012. According to the survey, 85% of IT executives predict that their 2012 IT budgets will be greater than or equal to their 2011 budgets. When this same question was asked two years ago, just 65% of respondents said that their budget would be about the same or greater.

Returning to a pre-recession mentality

According to the survey, several pieces of information indicate that IT departments are beginning to return to their pre-recession ways of operation. In 2011, IT budgets represented 3.55% of corporate revenue – this matches up well with the 3.5% that was the average prior to the recession.

SIM reports positive news for turnover rates as well. In 2011, IT staff turnover rates were 7.06%, compared to the pre-recession level of 7.2%. In 2008, turnover rates reached its highest level of 8.4%. Jerry Luftman, lead researcher for the SIM survey and a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, said that this figure shows that IT groups aren’t the first place that companies are looking to when making budget cuts.

With a sense of normalcy seeming to creep back into IT, what are your plans for the near future? Are you looking to invest more in people or equipment? Or maybe you’re thinking about taking your company’s networking to the cloud? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

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