As spring commencement approaches, many students have begun to think about their post-Binghamton University futures ‘ especially their prospective careers. And for those pursuing the growing information technology field, there is cause for hope, according to a recent study by Michigan State University.

‘Our Recruiting Trends report this year indicates a 5 percent growth in the IT job market at the bachelor’s degree level,’ said Kelley Bishop, the executive director of Career Services at MSU. ‘This includes employers at both ends of the spectrum, large and small.’

The IT field encompasses many different aspects and jobs, including computer engineering, data management and networking. According to Bishop, part of the reason for the field’s recent expansion is the general increased use of technology in the workplace.

‘While it would be nice to think that employees in all fields will become more technically savvy and somewhat take care of their own IT needs, the increasing sophistication of technology demands a cadre of specialists who can help us regular folks leverage the benefits of the technology,’ Bishop said. ‘Dr. Phil Gardner, the author of the Recruiting Trends reports, once termed information technologists as ‘the new blue collar workers of this century.’

Kanad Ghose, the department chair for computer science at BU, also believes the market has expanded.

‘It has grown back significantly, but it’s still not quite at the level we had in the boom days of dot-com,’ Ghose said. ‘The U.S. Department of Labor lists computing as one of the sectors that will see a strong demand and a job growth for the next 10 years.’

The use of technology isn’t something new to the business world. Rather, a transition into newer technologies, like automated manufacturing and the increased use of computing in business activities, has created many new jobs.

‘More services and resources are becoming automated, so there are more needs,’ Bishop said. ‘In addition, the constant growth in new technologies places a demand on professionals with knowledge of the latest stuff. ‘

The tendency of companies to hold off updating their technology is also responsible for some of the growth.

‘Any large organizations that have held off converting outdated technologies to current technologies are anxious to make the switch before it impacts their business negatively,’ Bishop said. ‘These conversion processes usually require a team of techies.’

The IT field is an industry that has been greatly affected by out-sourcing in recent years, but the field’s recent expansion has also brought some jobs back to the United States.

‘Believe it or not, some of the off-shored IT jobs are actually coming back to the States, as companies are discovering the many negatives of exporting computing jobs and the advantages of keeping proprietary software development in the U.S.,’ Ghose said. ‘The U.S. Labor Department predicts computing jobs to be in high demand for the next 10 years.’

While the worry about securing a job is a common trend among college seniors, BU students shouldn’t have too much trouble finding an IT job, Ghose added.

‘Our students never had a problem even when the computing job market was in its crest,’ Ghose wrote in an e-mail. ‘Most of our students have two to three job offers well before they graduate with average salaries in the low- to mid-50Ks for undergrads. Some of the top undergrads also had job offers in the mid 70Ks to low 80Ks annually.’

Given the volatility of markets in an uncertain world, some may think such increases may only be temporary. Nevertheless, Bishop remains optimistic.

‘I think this is a permanent shift,’ he said.