Overall, the segment accounted for 45,000 workers in the metro area. Salaries are way up for freshly minted computer science graduates of the University of Minnesota. Recruiters swept through the campus last fall to sign up Class of 2000 graduates, says Sharon Kurtt, director of career services for the U of M's Institute of Technology. Among those in greatest demand are the folks adept at e-commerce, Web development and design, Oracle databases and linking mainframes to the Web. There are more jobs than people and that is what has made us have to get creative.
Creativity plays a huge role in getting a candidate to come on board.
Firms working with the hottest technologies and business sectors say they have an edge in attracting and retaining workers.