CyberCoders, a leading worldwide recruiting firm, is predicting jobs in technology will be the 2011 Jobs of the Year. While the demand for tech jobs is on a steady rise, tech is not the only industry where candidates are gaining the upper hand in the hiring market. The December Job Report from Simply Hired shows job openings across the U.S. decreased 4.4 percent from November, a typical slow-down in the last weeks of the year with seasonal hiring – the same slow-down in job openings was reported in the Monster Employment Index. Both noted an increase in the Y-o-Y jobs at 69.4 percent – highlighting the uptick in recruiting staff for the year as mentioned in last week’s Data Watch.

Although job openings in most industries declined this month (12 out of 16), the hospitality industry showed a notable increase of 8.7 percent. The industry, which includes restaurants, hotels and similar businesses, likely experienced growth due to the holiday season. This mirrors the 17 of 24 occupation categories which also experienced a decline; some however saw job cuts decline by more than 90 percent.

Although these stats reflect seasonal hiring – it is reported by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, after reaching a seven-year high in 2009, downsizing activity in 2010 fell to its lowest level since 1997, as employers announced plans to eliminate 529,973 positions. 2010 came to a close with the lowest monthly job-cut total since 2000. Planned layoffs totaled 32,004 in December, down 34 percent from 48,711 in November, according to the 2010 year-end job-cut report released Wednesday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.  December job cuts were 29 percent lower than the same month a year ago when 45,094 cuts were announced. The 529,973 job cuts announced during the year were 59 percent fewer than the 1,288,030 layoffs recorded in 2009.

Some reductions are identified by employers as workers who will take early retirement offers or other special considerations to leave the company.

“Further job-search competition will come from people who are currently employed. They may have already seen some of their colleagues move to greener pastures, so they will be even more tempted to test the waters in 2011. Companies that are not quite ready to accelerate hiring will be required to focus more energy on retaining existing employees,” said Challenger. But it is reported companies are planning to hire this year, and not just seasonally. The Challenger Gray & Christmas report mentions over 400,000 job openings are planned for 2011.