A recent survey confirms employers are still seeking techies with specific certified and noncertified skills – and many are willing to pay a premium for them. “The recession has had minimal impact on demand for IT skills in the areas such as architecture, business process, security, communications, e-commerce, and several ERP and infrastructure specializations,” notes David Foote, co-founder, chief executive, and chief research officer for research firm Foote Partners. Read more on how to optimize your skill sets for a better job at Dice.com.

57% of tech industry executives believe that the economy will recover next year, and 66% believe that the tech industry will recover faster than the economy, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a KPMG survey of senior executives at 130 tech companies. Read more at The Business Insider.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. was still 9.4 percent in July, but some cities are better than others to look for a job. Of the top 50 metro areas, Washington, D.C., is the easiest for unemployed workers to find a job, while Detroit is the hardest, according to a new Job Market Competition index put together by job search engine Indeed. Read more at TechCrunch.

As we ponder trends in IT employment, it’s instructive to keep an eye on what’s happening in Manhattan for two reasons: First, it’s one of the nation’s largest markets for IT jobs. Second, its connection to the financial sector may make it a leading indicator of recovery trends. With that in mind, Wall Street and Technology says the latest quarterly report on local IT employment from Pace University found Manhattan IT job postings rose slightly in the first quarter. That could mean a bottom has been reached. Read more at Dice.com

With the emergence of social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter with their user bases growing by the millions, one would think that a headhunter’s job just got much easier. Nowadays we can find anybody whether it’s on one of these social networking sites, on a blog, discussion board, alumni list or via true and tried headhunting techniques. Find out whether your social media identity is helping or hurting your quest for a job at Mashable.

With the economy in its current state, keeping on top of the leading skills employers are looking for is critical. Fortune Magazine and CNN Money have compiled a list of the top 5 skill sets employers are looking for.

It’s interview day. You’re dressed to the nines and you’ve followed every tidbit of advice you could glean from business magazines and your peers. You walk into the conference room and, even though the air conditioning is cranked, you’re sweating. If you only knew what the interviewer was thinking. Get inside tips from Cathy Fyock, the director of recruiting for consultant Resources Global Professionals at Dice.com.

Game publishers should be able to grow revenues 9 percent a year in the U.S. and Europe as they embrace digital content and find ways to extend the consumption of games for the current generation of game consoles, a new report says. Read more good news for game developers at VentureBeat, and check out the profile of Chad Robertson of EA/Mythic Entertainment.

Apple’s iPhone has tremendous potential as a new platform for developers large and small; however, discrepencies in their rating system have been bothering users and developers alike. Read more on the ins-and-outs of the approval process at TechCrunch.

As techies, we often fall into the rut of doing the same thing day in and day out. We come in. We check the server logs. We check e-mail. Work on our main project. Go home. The next day, we get up and do it again. The problem is that, well, we become prone to doing the same thing all the time. And as the old saying goes, when the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems start to look like nails.