Richter, who has taken over a DBA role in addition to his development duties, says the threat of outsourcing led several developers to leave the company. His story is no anomaly. IT departments everywhere have shrunk since the heydays. To capitalize on opportunities as they arise, IT must navigate higher levels of technical complexity with a skeleton crew.

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“We are pulling together more these days because we are a much smaller team and in order to succeed we have no choice but to work together,” says Richter, who reports that this teamwork was key in seeing a product he’s worked on for 20 years “finally attain a stable hold in the marketplace.”

Nonetheless, 50 percent are more likely to believe issues with management or co-workers are jeopardizing their job security. Clearly, some IT staff are finding the close-quartered call for collaboration less than optimal and are polishing their résumés. Expect department morale at some organizations to continue withering as even more colleagues migrate to new employers. This year, one in 12 staff-level IT personnel profited from a lateral move to a different company, twice the number of last year’s survey.

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For those job hunting, prospects remain moderately upbeat. Behind mean budget increases of 15.8 percent, employers are twice as likely to be hiring at higher salaries this year than to be looking to save cash on new blood. Moreover, competition for jobs has cooled in the past several years, as only 20 percent of senior managers cited a competitive market as reason to hire for less, down from 38 percent last year and 68 percent in 2004's survey.

But one sure thing awaits the 29 percent of IT professionals with sights set on switching gigs: The companies hiring are asking for more. “The job market is good for those with applicable skills, but very unforgiving in terms of the expectations of the prospective employer,” says one systems analyst who wished to remain anonymous.

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“I see job posts for one person to do the work that two people used to do,” adds a systems administrator, summing up the sentiments of several survey respondents.

And, not surprisingly, companies are discovering that finding the right fit is no cakewalk. To wit, 34 percent of employers reported an inability to fill all open IT positions this year -- the top staffing issue two years running. And many remain cautious, fearing that settling for the “best available” will sap team performance.

“Incompetent staff can hurt you more than not having enough staff, mainly due to the rework and strain they create on the rest of the staff,” Richter says. “The chief obstacle we face going forward is getting the right new staff members on board now so they can be trained before the new round of business directives comes through.”