"While the subprime credit crisis, the weakened housing sector and the relentless stream of negative economic reports in the media would lead one to expect a softening in demand, we have not yet seen it. Outside of a handful of sectors, demand for IT professionals remains robust," concluded Mark Roberts, CEO of the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), which tracks IT employment on a monthly basis.

After reaching an all-time high in December 2007, IT employment was essentially unchanged in January 2008, dipping by less than 0.05 percent in January after surpassing the 3.8 million mark in December. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew 7.9 percent from January 2007 (growth in 2007 reflects a significant upward revision based on the annual revision of BLS data which took place this month).

The NACCB is the national trade association representing IT staffing and solutions firms.

NACCB's IT Employment Index is the first specific measurement of IT employment. This unique measurement of total IT employment is created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 16 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers including the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, financial, information services, business and professional services, and education and health industries.

The monthly IT Employment Index is based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, with concomitant revisions to the Index. The IT Employment Index is also subject to annual revisions of BLS data. The IT Index has been rebenchmarked this month (February 2008) with the publication of the BLS January 2008 employment report, reflecting significant revisions of employment data from the past several years.