Techies' Job Satisfaction At A Two-Year High

Techies were in a great mood last month, hitting record highs in feeling secure about their job and being the happiest they've been in two years, according to the latest monthly IT job confidence survey by staffing and outsourcing firm Hudson.

Not only were IT workers feeling good about their jobs last month, they were in a much better frame of mind than workers in other sectors nationally. Hudson phone surveyed more than 9,000 workers across industries such as manufacturing, financial, healthcare, as well as about 400 IT and telecom pros.

Compared to a base score of 100, IT and telecom pros in September rated their job confidence level at 114.6, a jump of 9.5 points over August and 5.3 points higher than it was in Sept. 2006.

By contrast, the national job confidence level among all workers fell in September for the second consecutive month, registering in at 97.1, down 2.1 points from August. The national job confidence level in September was one of the lowest since Hudson began doing these surveys a few years ago. The all-time low score of 96.8 in national job confidence was hit in September 2005.

Jobs looked a lot rosier for tech workers last month however. When it came to job security, only 17% said they were worried about losing their jobs last month, the lowest score since Hudson began its tallies.

When it came to job satisfaction, techies hit another high-mark, with 80% saying they were happy with their jobs, up 11 points since August, and the highest rating in two years.

Why such the good mood? Demand for tech talent remains stable and strong and workers are attuned to that, said Tim Bosse, a Hudson executive VP. The supply of talent is getting tighter while the demand is growing for many skills -- especially those of software and technology architects, business analysts, project managers and web developers, he said.

"Every time we talk, it will be about supply over the next several years," he said.