(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: My daughter is a college senior, majoring in computer science. I keep hearing that the IT job market is dismal and that many jobs are being shipped overseas, so I'm worried she won't be able to find work in her field when she graduates next spring. What's the prognosis? -- Denver Dad

Dear DD: The number of new high-tech jobs being created is on the rise, according to a Silicon Valley firm called NimbleCat that tracks IT employment. "Recruiters are telling us that they're doing more hiring and getting fewer résumés for each job opening than earlier in the year," says Sunil Mehta, NimbleCat's CEO. "That's the good news. The less good news is that not everyone who wants a job will get one. Job hunters need a résumé that is narrowly focused on a specific set of skills." Location matters. NimbleCat's data show the top ten U.S. cities for IT job creation, four of which are in California: San Jose, Washington, Long Beach, New York, Chicago, Boston, Oakland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Atlanta. But just about everywhere, some skills are hotter than others. The three that are in the most demand nationwide are software engineering, which accounted for 39% of all new IT jobs created in 2004, project management (27%), and software management (10%). Mehta expects opportunities in those areas to keep growing in the months ahead, so if your daughter has picked up an internship or part-time work experience in any of the three, or can do so before June, she may turn out to be more employable than you fear.

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