Monday, February 1, 2010
Our Survey: SoCal Tech Execs Optimistic, Looking To Hire
Local technology executives seem to be optimistic going into the new year, believing the worst of the economic decline has passed, and are also looking at hiring this year, according to the latest socalTECH.com Industry Survey. The non-scientific survey was a shift from the fairly negative outlook from last year's survey. According to the results--tallied by the David James Agency, which conducted they survey for us--82 percent of respondents to the survey are expecting some level of growth in 2010. 75 percent said they were planning on hiring employees this year.
The results are a sharp contrast to last year, when our survey found executives believing a recovery was still far off in the future. This year, 48 percent of our respondents though the industry had passed through the worst of the economic decline, 35 percent were unsure, and 17 percent believing that it had not. Job hiring plans were also better, with only a slim number of firms--3.06% expecting possible layoffs, with 85 percent of firms looking to hire workers. Firms were also fairly optimistic on growth, with 35.35% of firms expecting growth greater than 20%, 26 percent expecting growth between 11 and 20%, and another 21 percent expecting growth of between 0 and 10 %.
The survey this year was conducted between Jan. 4 to Jan. 20, and included responses ranging from San Diego County to San Luis Obispo County.