The Chicago job market is picking up steam as many companies have started hiring for IT jobs in Chicago.

Recent polls of employers from job boards and staffing agencies demonstrate that IT jobs are in high demand, especially those who specialize in networking, security, virtualization, and database skills.

Case in point is the Dice Report which is released by Dice Holdings, the company that owns Dice.com, which is an IT job board.

From the 600 respondents around the U.S. who hire or recruit IT professionals polled, 71 percent expect to add more employees in the second half of the year than they did in the first. More than half of that 71 percent expect to hire 10 or more new IT staff members.

This is great news for the IT industry, which took a hit during the recession.

Another survy from the ITMonitor showed that found that 37 percent of IT decision makers at large companies expect to hire more IT staff in the rest of the year, which is up 11 percentage points from a year ago.

In addition, 29 percent of respondents in the U.S. government sector expect to add additional IT staff, up 9 percent from April.

According to Tek Systems’ annual report, temporary IT hiring has also increased. Twenty-nine percent of companies polled expect to add temporary IT workers this quarter, up from 23 percent last quarter. The survey included input from more than 1,000 CIOs and other IT decision makers in the U.S. and Canada.

Markets that are picking up steam include New York City and Boston and smaller markets such as Research Triangle Park, Chicago and Atlanta. The New York City job listings include a 24 percent increase year-on-year in IT positions open at Wall Street financial firms

With the shutdown of Ravenswood Bank, it appears more financial jobs in Chicago were eliminated.

The Chicago-based lender was just acquired by Northbrook Bank and Trust. According to a statement posted on the FDIC website, the Ravenswood aquisition was worth about $270 million in deposits and two branches.

The failure cost the FDIC’s deposit-insurance fund $68.1 million.
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A Chicago alderman has announced that he feels the city needs to hire for police jobs in Chicago to fill a shortage that has left residents feeling scared and unprotected.

Robert Fioretti, who is thinking of running for mayor, said the PD needs to hire at least 1,000 officers to get back on track. He also acknowledged that the hiring spree would contribute $70 million to the $656 million budget shortfall the city is currently dealing with.

But Fioretti said the lack of large numbers of officers on the streets of Chicago are contributing to an unsafe and perilous environment and that this necessitates a much greater number of policeman to replenish the gaps. Read the rest of this entry »

Ford has committed to hiring over 1500 workers during the next few years, including creating new auto manufacturing jobs in Chicago.
Ford said it’s adding the positions at its: Sharonville, Ohio, transmission plant; Wayne, Michigan, assembly plant; Chicago Stamping Plant; the Sterling plant and Van Dyke transmission plant, both in Sterling Heights, Michigan; and the Rawsonville plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The work at the Ypsilanti and Van Dyke plants was done by suppliers in Japan and Mexico.
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Over 1500 teaching jobs in Chicago have been slashed, and many teachers are being forced to train their own replacements.

The teachers will be laid off before the new school year begins.

Hundreds of teachers received layoff notices in the mail this week. The Chicago Teachers Union is meeting with school officials Friday to discuss the layoffs.

About 400 teachers and 200 staff members got letters this week. AT the end of June, 239 teachers were dismissed. The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding that the laid off teachers get rehired before new teachers are brought on.

The schools are facing a $370 million defecit. Student to teacher ratios are increasing, and high school classes are being increased from 28 to 33 students. Precious programs, including bilingual programs, gifted programs, and afterschool programs are being cut.
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