While the economy goes in the tank, there might be at least one bright spot for IT pros: all those bank mergers and acquisitionsare creating demand for technology workers who can help post-merger companies smoothly integrate IT operations. That's what IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies has found. Hundreds of new IT jobs at post-merger financial institutions are available, says Matt Colarusso, branch manager for Sapphire's national recruiting. "You don't normally see them all come out at once like that," he says of the new rash of job listings.

Sapphire’s placements of IT pros in the banking and financial markets increased 18% from the second quarter to the third quarter. “I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this in the past where, in a matter of three weeks you have all these major investment banks merging and acquiring each other,” Colarusso says. “They’re all taking those first steps on how to combine their information together.”

Sapphire primarily fills contract positions, rather than full-time jobs. The firm acknowledged that the increase in IT contract jobs in the financial sector may be due partly to companies being wary of hiring full-timers in an uncertain economic time. However, Colarusso said the increase in financial sector jobs is notable given that Sapphire is seeing about 10% to 15% less demand for IT pros overall. Contract positions can also turn into full-time jobs, he noted.

The same increase in demand has been seen after previous periods in which there were high volumes of mergers and acquisitions, he says. IT pros with experience guiding companies through the integration of hardware, software and IT systems after a merger might be in good shape to land work today.

Newly-merged companies have to standardize data and clean it up before it gets combined into one system, ensuring that they meet various government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, he notes. Data analysts, business analysts, and data integration analysts are all needed for this process.

In the early stages after acquisitions, companies look for IT project and program managers with a business-oriented background, because they need employees who can serve as a liaison between the technical and business sides of the house. There won’t be as much demand for IT pros more strictly focused on development or technical tasks, Colarusso says. But the
post-merger increase in demand should continue through 2009, he says.

Jon Brodkin is senior writer at Network World.