| Energy sector continues to fuel IT employment in Dallas |
| July 2006 |
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| The energy sector has long been the ‘star’ in the Lone Star State. And in Dallas it has turned up the heat in the great IT talent search, joining several other big business sectors looking for a few good employees. “Dallas is incredibly hot right now. From everything I see it is one of hottest tech job markets in the United States,” said Larry Bruce, vice president of Sapphire Technologies, a national IT staffing firm. “The oil and gas industry there is spending through the roof and is increasingly spending it on labor.” |
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One reason for the optimism is a surprisingly steady state-wide economy that created nearly 15,000 jobs in May and more than 600,000 jobs since July 2003, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.The job growth rate over the last 12 months is now nearly twice that of the national average, according to the Workforce Commission. "The addition of jobs is often the best indicator of a healthy labor market and Texas has shown a consistent pattern of job growth over the last three years," said Diane Rath, Texas Workforce Commission Chair. And there are plenty of jobs in Dallas, especially IT positions. Many of these new positions are in high-tech roles across numerous sectors. “Of course there are a substantial number of energy firms hiring, but Dallas is also home to some very big telecom and microprocessor companies looking for IT talent,” said Steve Young, a director with PDS Technical Services, a national contract labor service company in Dallas. “There has been an interesting shift away from manufacturing into telecom services,” said Young. “Dallas is a diverse market with plenty of overall growth that includes the little guys.” |
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| "Dallas has so much going for it right now, it is worth a look for almost anybody shopping around IT skills" |
| - Scott Melland, Dice CEO |
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| However, it is the big players in the area such as Alcatel, Fujitsu and Verizon that have been on a hiring push of late, according to Young. Technology job listings on Dice, the leading technology career site, jumped 34% in the Dallas/Fort Worth area during a recent three-month period, from 2,293 in December to 3,079 in March. Since then the number of listings has remained steady. The most sought-after IT skills right now, according to Dice, include Oracle, SAP and Java. And even the money in Texas is big. The average yearly salary for IT workers in Dallas is $72,700, nearly $2,500 more than the U.S. average, according to a salary survey by Dice. There is another very important factor, says Young, which makes Dallas a desirable stop for coastal transplants looking to save some money on reasonable housing. Texas has no state income tax. “It’s considerably cheaper for people to live here than on the coasts,” said Young. Young says his company actively recruits clients with vertical skill sets that can reach across the board in order to cross market them to energy businesses, telecom companies, manufacturers and service providers in the area. And it’s no longer just the certified IT worker commanding the big bucks, according to Foote Partners, an IT compensation and workforce management research firm. “It’s an accelerating trend, the fact that IT skills without certification are growing in value 70% greater than certified skills over the past year,” said David Foote, president and chief research officer for Foote Partners. “While technical skills are still important, employers are not placing the same premium on certification of these skills they once did.” The state also ranks third in the United States in venture capital investments and continues to be among the top tech exporters in the country, ranking second behind only California. “Dallas has so much going for it right now, it is worth a look for almost anybody shopping around IT skills,” said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. Comments? Please contact us at feedback@dice.com.
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