Survey: Economy hurting hiring at tech firms

{mosads}“Multiply this behavior across every industry sector and economic pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Herbert said. “Firms refrain from spending, which signals to vendors a slowdown, which causes spending restraint in other areas. No one wants to move first. This vicious cycle ripples throughout the economy.”

Respondents also predicted a 1.9-point increase in the index for the first quarter of 2012, a significant drop from earlier estimates.

“This modest gain is lower than previous outlooks, which typically exceeded five points,” Herbert said. “It’s yet another sign of dimming confidence in a short-term fix to a shaky world economy.”

A third of responding firms said staffing shortages have forced them to postpone or cancel projects. Programmers and application developers were the most desired new hires, followed by help desk and support personnel, project managers and sales staff.

Even when firms are hiring, finding the right workers is difficult. Seventy-four percent of respondents called it somewhat or very challenging finding qualified candidates for openings. The IT Industry Business Confidence Index for the fourth quarter is based on an online survey of 427 IT companies.