The latest IT jobs report from SkillProof and the North Carolina Technology Association found that the average number of daily IT job openings in the state decreased by more than 17 percent from December 2009 to January of this year, indicating that there is no immediate IT jobs recovery on the way.

"Even though the U.S. economy grew during the last two quarters of 2009, this positive development has not led to higher (job) demand in January," the report notes.

Overall, employers throughout North Carolina posted an average of 1,300 IT job openings each day during January, which is a 17.7 percent decrease from December. The daily job opening average in the Raleigh area alone decreased by 8.7 percent, compared with a 7.1 percent national average decline.

When it comes to average job openings posted daily, there were 4,000 two years ago; 1,120 one year ago; 1,770 during November and 1,580 during December.

The sectors with the most job openings during January include:

• Systems engineering and support - 380
• Software development - 220
• IT architects and consultants - 130
• Systems administration - 110
• IT management - 100
• IT sales and marketing - 90
• Training and tech writing - 40
• Business and process design - 30
• Miscellaneous categories - 30
• Hardware engineering - 10

The top 15 skills needed by employers during January, in no particular order, were: Windows OS, C++/V++, Linux, Java, Oracle DBMS, SQL, Unix, Business analysis, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows NT/2000/2003 Server, XML, Perl, Large system technologies and Virtualization technology.