CIOs and other senior managers are turning to contract and temporary hires more than ever now in light of continuing economic challenges. In fact, the pace of hiring temp workers is growing three times faster than during the last recovery, according to analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics by tech jobs site Dice.com, which augmented the analysis with data from its own site. The findings demonstrate that full-time IT jobs are also on the rebound. Indeed, the unemployment rate for tech professionals (4.3 percent) is far lower than the overall national average (9.6 percent). The wealth of temporary and contractual IT work being created demonstrates the growing emphasis on flexibility among CIOs, who want to make sure that enough talent is available to get the job done while keeping their options open with respect to staffing levels. Hiring a full-time worker, after all, is a long-term commitment that often requires the provision of costly benefits. A contractual/temp "hired gun" requires no benefits and can be brought on board for a single, demanding IT project.