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Denver among hottest tech job markets

Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 21, 2006 at midnight

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Despite headline-grabbing layoffs at companies such as Sun Microsystems and Seagate Technology, the Denver area and the mountain states are vibrant when it comes to hiring technology workers.

A new survey said the outlook for tech hiring in the Denver area in the fourth quarter is again ahead of the national average - and that the mountain states region is among the hottest tech job markets in the nation.

Chalk it up to businesses here such as retailers and the food- and-beverage industry, which are scooping up tech workers to improve the bottom line.

"More and more nontechnology businesses are relying on technology to improve their internal operations and increase revenue," said Deidre Steuber, Denver-area division director for Robert Half Technology, the high-tech staffing firm that conducted the survey.

That's translating into a need for tech workers.

The survey found that 15 percent of Denver-area chief information officers plan to add information technology workers in the fourth quarter. Two percent anticipate cuts, based on the 200 respondents in the survey.

The net difference between the two figures - a positive 13 percentage points - is down one percentage point from the area's third-quarter 2006 forecast but three points ahead of the national average. Denver has been ahead of the national average since the second quarter.

The mountain states - which run from Colorado to Arizona to Idaho - posted a positive gap of 21 percentage points, the second- strongest in the nation.

According to Steuber, jobs in the most demand in the area include help- desk professionals, system administrators, so-called dot-net developers who do Internet-related work, and business intelligence gurus who help a company run more efficiently.

Brad Weydert, president of Statera, a business and technology consulting firm in the Denver Tech Center, said smaller to midsized companies are showing the most demand for tech skills.

"It's all about being agile," Weydert said of the key factor fueling demand for tech workers.

And how's his own firm's hiring outlook?

"We're constantly hiring," said Weydert, whose company employs about 155 in Denver. Weydert expects the area work force to be at 165 by year's end - "easily."

The hiring at small and medium-sized businesses contrasts with news from the likes of Sun and Seagate, which together this year have cut more than 1,000 jobs in Colorado.

Economist Patty Silverstein, president of Development Research Partners, said the local high-tech industry "is one that is still in a transitional period."

She added: "One day we get great news, and the next day we get bad news."

IT survey says

• Percentage-point difference between chief information officers who expect to add information technology jobs in the fourth quarter and those who expect to cut workers:

Denver-area CIOs    +13 points

Mountain states CIOs    +21 points

National average    +10 points

Source: Robert Half Technology

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