The High-tech industry is powering up again (start-ups are getting funded, hiring comes next)

Los Angeles Times ^ | 03/05/2010 | Dan Fost

[SeekAndFind]

Helped by a spate of acquisitions, start-ups are getting funded, which gives them a chance to hire.

It looked as if the economy had dealt a powerful blow to L.J. Mottel, a 35-year-old father of two, when his employer, the Fontainebleau hotel and resort in Las Vegas, filed for bankruptcy and laid him off.

But unlike other victims of the downturn, Mottel had the luck of a high-roller on a hot streak: He was the Fontainebleau's director of information technology, and that made him a hot commodity. He didn't have to wait long before getting a new job at Service-now.com, a Solana Beach, Calif., tech firm that develops Web applications to help companies automate their IT departments.

"I never got the panicky feeling," Mottel said. "I felt the IT field is the right place to be."

While unemployment continues to limp along at nearly 10% nationally and more than 12% in California, the high-tech industry is on a roll. Sparked in part by a series of acquisitions, start-ups are getting funded again, giving them the cash infusion needed to hire.

Some tech companies are even having a hard time finding qualified employees to fill their openings, a reflection both of the competition to hire talent and of some workers' unwillingness to move.

"Due to the recession and the economy, people are reluctant to seek change," said Robert Greene, a tech recruiter in San Mateo, Calif. "They become more risk-averse in times when the economy is not good. People got burned. They went to companies and then got laid off. They don't want to have that situation happen again."

But now, he said, "I have seen that start to change a little. The floodgates have started to open a little."

[SeekAndFind]

Jobnob Inc., a San Francisco company that has established an online community to match tech companies with job seekers, put on an event last December at the Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice, and 350 people attended to hear hiring pitches from about 100 companies.

Similar events last month in Palo Alto, New York and Chicago drew more than 100 employers and 350 job seekers.

[17th Miss Regt]

The sword of Damocles right now is Obamacare. If it passes, taxes will go up on compay payrolls and more folks will be laid off. That will put an end to any nascent recovery but good. If it fails companies may wait a bit to be sure that it is truly dead before hiring new folks.

[Common Sense 101]

BS... just two days ago another 469,000 people filed for unemployment, and the state’s propogandists claim, “The floodgates have started to open a little.” It seems patently obvious to anyone with a brain that the only thing Zero and his merry band of socialists plan on doing to boost the economy, is lie and blather on about how great the “recovery” is doing.

[Buckeye McFrog]

if Obamacare passes it will just push more of the work to India (if not all)

[SeekAndFind]

If it fails companies may wait a bit to be sure that it is truly dead before hiring new folks.

One thing we need to remember -- Telecommunications and the Internet is a great equalizer. Companies DO NOT necessarily need to establish a presence here to get their products developed anymore.

[bunkerhill7]

Yes Obummer took $1B of YOUR TAXES Stimulus money and created or saved thousands(?) of jobs in CHINA!- Fox news