The IT workforce last year grew just 3.3%, with much of the gain being added to non-IT companies' payrolls, according to the Information Technology Association of America. The total number of U.S. IT workers at the end of 2002 exceeded 10.2 million, up from nearly 9.9 million in 2001.

In the fourth quarter, the IT profession gained 97,000 jobs, down from the 147,000 added in the third quarter. Hiring by non-IT companies outpaced hiring by IT companies by 10-to-1 in the fourth quarter. Though companies hired fewer IT workers in the fourth quarter than in the previous three, they also dismissed fewer workers. "Both hiring and dismissals were at their lowest in the fourth quarter, showing relatively stable workforce patterns in what is often a seasonally soft quarter for hiring activity," ITAA president Harris Miller said in a statement. "Unlike late last year, we're seeing less optimism from hiring managers as they anticipate their needs over the next year, most likely because of instability from the war and other economic factors."

According to the Dice Tech Skills profile, an addendum to the study compiled by technical online recruiting company Dice Inc., Java is the most in-demand skill, growing 27% to 4,171 jobs listed on Dice in the past year. SQL Software, C and C++, Oracle, and Windows NT round out the top five skills.

Other key findings in the quarterly report:

• IT managers predict the need to hire an additional 874,327 workers over the upcoming months, down from the third quarter and the beginning of 2002.

• The hiring of network administrators increased by 45,000 as fewer than 6,000 were dismissed. Meanwhile, tech-support workers represented 55% of all IT hires during the fourth quarter of 2002, with 147,437 hired.

• Database developers saw the largest growth in 2002, climbing 6.2%, from 960,626 to 1,020,244 positions nationwide.

"The workforce continued to grow slightly throughout 2002," Dice CEO Scot Melland says, "but the vast shortages reported a few years ago are down considerably."