It seemed like just the other day I was hearing about how the IT hiring outlook was improving and that CIOs were planning on bringing in more staff and opening up the checkbooks in Q4 of 2007. So I was a little surprised this morning to read that I should be budgeting for uncertain times, instead.

To be fair, I imagine your outlook might vary widely at any given point on the financial compass depending on the vagaries of your particular industry. And the CIO Insight article reflected a certain optimism on the part of CIOs interviewed for it as well, with many of them apparently feeling shielded from any upcoming downturn by their proactive And in my opinion, pretty much any time is uncertain, you just don't always know about it ahead of schedule... so the CIO Insight article is a worthwhile ready even if you're one of the 23% of Robert Half respondents who are planning on increasing the size of your department.