With IT Jobs Projected To Increase Over The Next Seven Years, Financial Advice-Givers Are Keen On Tapping Social Media

The market for IT professionals is head and shoulders above that of other U.S. industries and has a "natural" unemployment rate of under 5 percent, a new report from Pace University shows.

IT professionals focused on finance could realize still greater opportunities, Farrokh Hormozi told eFinancialCareers. Hormozi is a Pace economist, as well as the school's public administration chair.

One new trend, he says, involves financial advice-givers wanting to tap social media sites to identify potential customers and gain insight into their investment objectives and preferences.

The Pace report points to an estimated 293,000 computer and information systems managers were employed nationwide in 2008 working for financial and insurance firms, governmental agencies, business management organizations and manufacturers.

IT jobs could grow 17 percent

IT employment is expected to grow 17 percent overall between 2008-2018, says Pace, which relies on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Pace SkillPROOF IT Index for October 2011, focusing on the New York City borough of Manhattan, did show a 2 percent decline in IT job searches among 130 Manhattan-stationed companies between the second and third quarters of this year.

However, Pace says that this was following a better than a 1 percent increase in the second quarter and mostly shows the dynamic nature of the industry, "particularly in Manhattan where the trend line is steady and the market has remained above the trend for five consecutive quarters."

"It is expected that as we move into the fourth quarter and business activity improves, the market for IT professionals will see a healthy increase," Pace's quarterly Manhattan newsletter states.

New York to fare better than other parts of the country

The newsletter notes, too, that New York State has fared better than other parts of the country in terms of its employment picture:

"The national 'Jobless Recovery' continues to fluctuate between gains in some sectors and losses in others. In the quarter just ended and based on the adjustments made by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added over 300,000 new jobs.

"These, however, were not enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate of 9.1 percent even though the 103,000 jobs added to the economy in September were almost twice what had been projected. The labor market in NY State has fared better. Of the 9.4 million currently active in the labor force, 8.7 million still hold jobs, resulting in an unemployment rate of 8 percent."