Winter Woes

The House on Tuesday passed legislation that would finance the payroll tax holiday partly through extending the two-year federal pay freeze through 2013 and increasing the amount government workers contribute to their pensions. But what impact could such measures have on the federal IT workforce going forward? According to a new survey by Dice, it could mean bad news for recruiting and retaining federal IT professionals, many of whom could face much brighter prospects in the private sector.

Of nearly 1,200 IT-focused hiring managers and recruiters surveyed by Dice, 65 percent said their companies or clients are looking to add technology professionals in the first half of 2012, with 27 percent looking to expand their staffs by more than 20 percent.

Many companies are using pay incentives to lure tech workers. Forty-two percent of hiring managers and recruiters predicted that salaries for new hires would grow in the coming year. This marks a slight drop from 47 percent in May 2011, but is still nearly a dozen percentage points higher than the results of any hiring survey since June 2008, Dice found. Still, like federal workers, IT pros in the private sector also are facing flat salaries, with 44 percent of respondents indicating that salaries are the same as last year.

Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents said that the time to fill open tech jobs has grown longer than the year before, with 57 percent of that group saying the hiring delays are due to a shortage of qualified tech talent, while 31 percent said the economy was slowing hiring efforts. Tech professionals with six to 10 years of experience are most in demand by companies, followed by those with two to five years in IT, Dice found.

But despite the sluggish economy, the risk of layoffs at private companies is low, the survey found. For corporate hiring managers who recruit for their own needs, just 16 percent said that layoffs are likely in the first six months of 2012. Many hiring managers (38 percent) are concerned that voluntary departures will increase in 2012, compared to 43 percent who were concerned about attrition in mid-2011, the survey found.

Does the possibility of better prospects in the private sector, particularly in light of a potential federal pay freeze extension, make you want to jump ship on your federal IT job?

Wired Workplace is a daily look at issues facing the federal information technology workforce. It is published on Nextgov.com. Click here to read the latest entries.