A Booming Job Market Favors Tech Workers, Sales People – for the Moment

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Want proof that high tech and life science businesses are expecting a good year in 2007?

Ask employment recruiters, such as Craig Stone of Hire Networks.

“People are hiring across the board,” Stone said. “Two years ago, if you had a job and were unhappy and wanted another, you would take it. Now, companies are competing for workers and negotiating. The environment has definitely changed.”

With unemployment rates low locally (under 4 percent in the Triangle) and nationally, companies are paying more for prospective employees. That’s one sign of a worker-friendly environment, Stone says.

Another is this: Look at how many companies have disclosed plans to expand sales forces or are running advertisements and retaining firms such as Hire Networks to find them.

The 2001 “dot com” crash and the related telecom busts are distant memories now. So even as some companies such as Nortel plan to cut workers, many more are looking to grow.

“People are ramping up their sales forces both inside and outside,” Stone said in a recent conversation. “That’s a good sign for the economy.”

Just one example: On Tuesday, SAS Chief Marketing Officer Jim Davis said the software firm is hiring sales people to capitalize on growing demand. Plus, a number of drug companies continue to look for help.

But having positions to fill and filling them are two very different tasks.

“Good sales people are hard to find,” Stone said. He made sure to add: “And developers, too.”

A recent systems integrator executive told me recently he can’t find Java developers at a reasonable price. According to Stone, the market for software developers is tight everywhere – another sign that tech companies see growth opportunities and want to further enhance or develop new products. And these coders aren’t cheap hires.

“Developers who were making $60,000 two years ago now are making $90,000,” Stone said.

The job market is never stable for long, however. An environment in favor of workers now will at some point shift, Stone warned.

“The pendulum does not stay in the middle for very long,” he said.

In other words, if you are looking to improve your own position, act today.