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Hiring in tech departments across Canada is expected to be slower in the second quarter, while chief financial officers plan to boost accounting and finance hirings, according to new surveys by Robert Half.

The Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report noted that 14 per cent of the 270 chief information officers surveyed plan to add IT staff and three per cent are looking to cut jobs in the second quarter of 2008. The net 11-per-cent hiring increase is down from the net 13-per-cent increase projected in the first quarter.

Business expansion was the main reason CIOs cited for the spike in hiring, at 43 per cent, followed by systems upgrades at 17 per cent. Eleven per cent of CIOs said the need for customer and/or end-user support and the installation and development of new enterprise-wide applications were also a factor for hiring more high-tech staff.

The retail industry is expected to be the most active of all business sectors in hiring IT staff in the upcoming quarter, with 28 per cent of CIOs in the sector expecting to add personnel and none planning for staff reductions. That is followed by business services firms, which expect to see an increase of 25 per cent.

CIOs polled said networking would be the job category with the strongest growth, at 18 per cent, followed by help desk and end-user support, at 12 per cent, and information security at 10 per cent.

FINANCIAL HIRING TO HIKE

Meanwhile, chief financial officers surveyed in the Robert Half International Financial Hiring Index expected to see a net hiring increase of seven per cent in the second quarter, up from the flat projection of the previous quarter.

The rise is anticipated to be overwhelmingly fuelled by business growth, with 73 per cent of CFOs surveyed citing company expansion as the main reason for the more positive hiring outlook. The rising workloads in accounting and financial departments across the country were the second-most cited reason for the hiring increase, at 14 per cent.

The professional and business services sectors had the most optimistic hiring outlooks for the second quarter, with a net 17 per cent of CFOs from both these sectors expecting to hire additional staff. The manufacturing sector is also anticipating strong hiring growth for finance staff at 15 per cent of all CFOs polled.

The survey was based on interviews with more than 270 CFOs.