9/26/2006 -- It's always a good time to be a Cisco certified professional, but -– with CIO confidence apparently on the rise and Cisco skills in demand -– it's perhaps never been a better time to have Cisco laurels of some kind.

That's the upshot of new research from IT staffing specialist Robert Half Technology, which in a survey of some 1,400 North American CIOs (all at companies with 100 or more employees) found that fully 13 percent of executive decision makers expect to hire new IT workers in the coming quarter, while just 3 percent anticipate making reductions. Of these new hires, Cisco professionals look to be among the most in demand, Robert Half said, with a decisive majority of CIOs citing Cisco skills as most in demand.

Robert Half researchers flagged a number of trends that have helped drive IT job growth. First, Robert Half said, continuing business growth is leading the charge, which is a good thing as far as U.S. firms, and U.S. IT workers, are concerned. Second, according to the IT staffing specialist, IT organizations are increasingly investing in time- and resource-intensive infrastructure projects, which are also fueling demand for new IT hires.

All told, nearly 20 percent of CIOs cited the latter trend as a major factor in their employment projections for Q4.

For the record, almost four-fifths (79 percent) of CIOs cited skills in network administration –- specifically, Cisco and Nortel expertise –- as among the most in-demand of skill areas, second only to Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 administrative skills. -Stephen Swoyer