Optimism
Robust Expansion
The global IT market will grow by 5% this year, up notably from a prior forecast of 3.4%.
Segment Breakdown
Telecom services account for 44% of the global IT market, followed by IT hardware (27%), services (18%) and software (11%).
Optimistic Outlook, Part I
The current IT Industry Business Confidence index is 64.5, up 2.4% from the last quarter of 2014.
Optimistic Outlook, Part II
39% of IT industry execs and professionals said margins/profitability are getting better, up from 33% in 2012.
Bigger Budget
50% anticipate that their companies will increase their investments in new products or business lines, and 47% expect to increase spending on tech.
Formidable Barriers
40% cited “price-sensitive” customers who are hesitant to spend as a major growth inhibitor, while 30% said it’s the presence of government regulation, gridlock and/or regulatory uncertainty.
Job Growth
As of late last year, the industry posted more than 581,000 job openings for core IT positions—including computer and information systems managers, programmers, software/app developers and database administrators—up from about 534,400 openings the year before.
Tall Order
68% of IT industry execs and professionals described the hiring environment for tech positions as “challenging” or “very challenging,” compared with just 14% who don’t feel the environment is challenging.
Short-Handed
43% of tech industry execs and professionals said their companies are understaffed.
Temporary Solution
43% said they deal with being understaffed by requiring employees to put in more time on the job, and 31% are using contract/temp workers.