2015 IT Outlook: Optimism Despite Slower Growth

Fewer IT executives expect their budgets to increase next year, yet a growing number are confident in their ability to meet business demands, according to an annual IT forecast released this week by TEKsystems.

The IT staffing company surveyed more than 500 CIOs, IT VPs, IT directors, and IT hiring managers from a variety of industries and range of business sizes to gauge their expectations for 2015. While 45% of those surveyed expect their budgets to increase, that's a pretty big drop from last year's survey, when 62% expected budgets to increase in 2014.

Oddly enough, despite what appears will be a slow year for IT budget growth, 71% of IT leaders said they're confident in their ability to support business objectives. That's up from 66% in last year's survey.

It's hard to say what makes these folks so confident, but in its analysis of the results, TEKsystems surmised that the increased confidence may be a "result of stronger IT and business relationships, increased clarity of expectations between business and IT, and improved alignment between the projects and technologies that IT" manages and supports.

IT hiring will also slow in 2015, according to the survey. Forty percent of survey respondents expect an increase in full-time IT hiring next year, compared to 47% last year. Fifty percent don't expect any change in hiring of full-time employees in 2015.

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