IT Jobs in (or around) Peoria, IL (Chicago, Bloomington: insurance, job market)

[patriciado]

Hello All,

I'm considering relocating to Peoria for a job (medical field). I'm concerned about my husband's ability to find a job in the area. He's in IT (computer networking, etc). How's the job-marklet out there in general and for people in IT?

Thanks for any help!

[linicx]

Seventy years ago Peoria had a strong manufacturing and production base. Today it has a strong medical, business and technological base. I would say if DH has experience with networks, various operating systems, computer languages, network security or network forensics he should not have a large problem. Despite the recession Peoria companies have continued to interview and hire qualified individuals.

I should add that Peoria is the third largest aggregate population in Illinois. OSF and Caterpillar are two of the larger employers and they continue to hire. With two malls, a half dozen shopping centers and a dozen grocers you will be able to find most of the products you want. You will find performing arts, visual arts, an amazing park district, river cruises, and a casino mixed with boutique shops, good food and amazing scenery. You will not find anything in the Midwest that has the East Coast or the West Coast vibe, but you will be welcomed and you will not be isolated. Peoria is very much a family and kids town. Chicago and St.Louis are less than a three hours by car. and 45 minutes by plane.

[patriciado]

Thanks!

[mdand3boys]

ATS has a large presence (a CAT start-up that also does all of CAT's IT) but are geared towards only hiring people with some sort of manufacturing/IT background. If you get hired by one of the hospitals, you may be able to help get him employed in the hospital.

[linicx]

ATS is a leading provider of managed maintenance services for production equipment in North America.

Production lines are sometimes associated with manufacturing and/or packaging. .

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by linicx

ATS is a leading provider of managed maintenance services for production equipment in North America.

Production lines are sometimes associated with manufacturing and/or packaging. .

Most of the IT staff (infrastructure) in all of the corporate (management) buildings in the Peoria area are all employees of ATS...
Many of the database and programmer types are employed by contracting firms.

[Scio42]

The job market in Peoria is alright considering all things. Like much of the country, while it's still higher than it has been for many years, unemployment is down from the height of the recession and hiring has picked up noticeably over the past 6-9 months.

IT jobs are still in demand, so an experienced IT person should have less difficulty finding a job, although many IT jobs are consulting/contract gigs. If your husband is willing to consider both permanent and consulting/contract jobs and include both Peoria & Bloomington-Normal (about 35 mins away from Peoria, less from somewhere more in the middle like Morton) he shouldn't have too much trouble finding something.

When looking for an IT job he should check out the major employers -

Caterpillar, The Hospitals (OSF, Methodist, Proctor), Bradley University, Keystone, ADM, school district 150, city government, Komatsu in Peoria

State Farm Insurance, Country Financial, Illinois State University, city government in B-N

Or IT consulting companies like ATS, KEEN (& a number of others)

There's also some smaller software companies like CSE that just moved to downtown Peoria