CIOs Plan More Hiring

Eighteen percent of chief information officers said their firms plan to add IT personnel in the fourth quarter of the year, while 3 percent said they expect staff reductions, according to a survey by RHI Consulting.

The increase in projected hiring is up 3 percentage points from the previous quarter's forecast by RHI Consulting, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that provides contract IT workers to businesses.

More than 1,400 chief information officers were interviewed for the survey by an independent research firm. They were selected from a random sample of U.S. firms with at least 100 employees.

CIOs in the South Atlantic states (Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) were particularly optimistic about IT hiring in the fourth quarter. Twenty-seven percent of CIOs in these states said they plan to expand their IT departments. Just 1 percent said they anticipate personnel cutbacks.

Technology executives in the Middle Atlantic states (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania) were also upbeat. Twenty-five percent of CIOs said they plan to add IT workers, while 5 percent said they expect staff cutbacks.