Yoh Company Issues 2002 Technology Staffing Industry Forecast

PHILADELPHIA, PA – January 30, 2002 – Yoh Company, a leading technology staffing firm in the United States, projects that overall demand for talent in the scientific, health care, aviation, IT and telecommunications markets will rise as 2002 progresses.

Scientific
In the scientific marketplace, Douglas Fearon, Technical Director, expects that demand from pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies will be at least 10% stronger in 2002. "The growth within the pharmaceuticals and biotech communities is creating soaring demand for many categories of scientific laboratory specialists," said Fearon. "Hiring companies that are involved in drug discovery and new product development are building their pipelines and have an urgent requirement for top talent in their labs."

Demand for clinical trial specialists, specifically clinical researchers, data monitors and biostaticians, are at an all-time high. Organic chemists and validation specialists are also in heavy demand.

"We believe that as biotech companies continue to mature and transition from research to discovery, there will be an increased need for mid- to senior-level scientists," according to Fearon.

Yoh Scientific also forecasts that the need for quality control specialists will grow within both biotech and medical device firms.

In the health care market, occupational health nurses and nurse practitioners will be in the greatest demand in 2002, a factor complicated by the expectation that the call for these workers dramatically outstrips current supply. This trend is expected to continue for the next several quarters.

Engineering
Demand in engineering markets is dependent on the talent required, according to Perry Tornquist, Senior Vice President and Technical Director for Yoh Engineering. Overall, he expects the need for engineers to be slightly higher in 2002, compared to last year.

Engineers with experience in the aviation and defense industries will be in the strongest demand. "We project increased interest in aviation candidates with a strong background in stress and avionics," according to Tornquist. "In the defense industry, people with proven experience in weapons systems, munitions, satellite technology and government electronics will be in the highest demand."

Civil engineers, specifically those with experience in highway and bridge design, will also be in high demand in 2002, as will engineers with pharmaceutical and biotech backgrounds.

Expect continued diminished demand for engineers with backgrounds in manufacturing, power, microelectronics and petrochemicals. "Each of these industries are slow to recovery with regard to contract workers," said Tornquist. "We don't envision many new opportunities until the third quarter at best."

Information Technology
The information technology market, which took a beating in 2001 due to the dotcom meltdown and the cancellation of major projects by corporate IT departments, is poised for a recovery beginning in the second quarter of 2002, and could grow as much as 6% over 2001 levels, according to David Harradine, Senior Vice President and Technical Director of Yoh IT.

The greatest potential for growth in 2002 exists with software talent focused on developing .NET and CRM technologies as well as experienced web developers. With rising demand for projects surrounding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the need for COBOL programmers and business and systems analysts will hit an all-time high.

"Despite the overall drop in demand in 2001, pockets of growth did exist," according to Harradine. In those regions with a diverse business base such as Philadelphia and Charlotte, job losses were offset by growth in the defense, health care and banking industries.

The market for IT outsourcing services such as customized help desk solutions is also expected to be fairly robust in 2002, due to an increased interest by organizations to cut non-core operating costs as the economy recovers. As a result, the need for experienced help desk is expected to increase in the 10%-to-15% range. Harradine also believes the continuing demand for Windows XP and Windows 2000 implementations will drive the requirements for talent experienced in those operating systems.

Regardless of the growth of the overall market, Harradine forecasts a dramatic drop in demand for Visual Basic and PowerBuilder.

Telecommunications
Paul Greer, Senior Vice President and Technical Director of Yoh Telecom forecasts that 2002 will be a reversal of 2001 activities.

"We believe that the first half of the year will be reasonably slow as RBOC's, OEMs, Network Owners/Operators and Service Providers all try to digest what the stock markets and consumer economy handed them in the last quarter of 2001," said Greer.

During the first half of the year, the hottest sector for job candidates in the telecommunications market will be RF/Wireless build-outs and infrastructure, metro rings, power upgrades, 2G to 3G migrations and a return to premise distribution work for large corporations. During the second half of the year, Greer believes that increased demand for telecommunications talent associated with traditional switching, transport and OEM work will result in a rebound to levels within 50% to 60% of 2001 peaks. Yoh Telecom also expects the second half of the year to produce an increase in activity associated with GSM and GSM interconnectivity.