Treffer: IT SKILLS IN A TOUGH JOB MARKET.

The article identifies the most-sought IT job skills and examines the change in demand for these skills over a three-year period from April 2002 to April 2005. The IT job market is no longer in a decline. The total number of available positions has increased almost 50% since April 2002. Only a year ago, the job market was much like the stock market in that it could not move up or down without running into itself. Now, in an improving job market, it is increasingly important for IT professionals to be aware of the demand for specific skills. Professionals should also pay attention to the skills for which demand may be growing in order to better position themselves in the competitive job market. The need for Web-related development has changed the demand for programming skills. Web programming comprises a complex set of skills including both programming and scripting languages as well as meta-languages such as XML. Web programming has jumped into a commanding lead in the total number of jobs requiring programming skills. Web programming, Unix, C++, Java, SQL programming, and Oracle database seem to be the top six skills in the current job market. INSET: DATA COLLECTION FOR THE MOST DEMANDED JOB SKILLS..