The four IT jobs that are currently in highest demand at Technisource are project managers, business analysts, application developers and IT security professionals, says Speer. He expects these positions to remain in demand through the rest of 2011, even if the economy continues its southbound trajectory.

Q's clients are seeking all manner of software developers: Java, .NET, open source, PHP, Ruby on Rails and Python, says Bernstein. Systems administrators are also in demand, along with product managers and project managers.

"Folks that have experience and can wear multiple hats are faring the best," says Speer. "If you have project management experience plus coding experience, you're a hot commodity."

Even if the economy forces CIOs to make cuts, Speer expects them to cut areas such as the help desk before they put projects on hold and cut project managers and developers. For example, a CIO whose help desk currently answers every call after one ring and resolves most trouble tickets after the first call might scale back staff and service so that calls are answered after the fifth ring and trouble tickets take three calls before they're resolved.