Starpoint Solutions, a staffing firm, is looking to hire 20 to 60 people for IT jobs in Rhode Island.

Starpoint Solutions is based in New York and is looking to hire up to 70 people in Rhode Island, with 20 to 60 being in the IT arena.

Five to 10 sales people and recruiters will also be hired in Providence.

As of December, Corporate Search Group, Inc. (CSG) became a part of Starpoint Solutions. Starpoint describes its business as a full-service staffing firm with a solid record of successful placements in the Finance, Accounting and Banking arena. 

According to the Starpoint Solutions site, the combination of CSG with Starpoint brings a “wider range of offerings to clients including application development; enterprise software services; and staffing solutions for Accounting and Finance, as well as IT, Administrative, Network & Infrastructure Technology, and Executive Management.”

Starpoint also has an office in Boston and wants to establish their business in Rhode Island as well.

Positions that will come available in Rhode Island in the coming months will be listed on the Starpoint website.

 The welcome news comes at a time when hiring in Rhode Island has been sluggish.

The State of Rhode Island is among those that are not seeing any relief from the current economic recession, with the state continuing to lose more jobs and Rhode Island unemployment continuing to increase.

During June, Rhode Island saw its unemployment rate increase from 12.1 percent to 12.4 percent, which is higher than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.5 percent. The state has not seen its unemployment rate decrease since January 2007, when it went from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent.

 More good news: the maximum amount of money that the State of Rhode Island allows people to collect in unemployment benefits each week is about to increase, according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

It was recently announced that the maximum amount for someone without dependents will increase by $18 per week, or 3.4 percent, from $528 to $546. The maximum amount for someone with five or more dependents will increase by $22 per week, or 3.3 percent, from $660 to $682.

One large telecommunications company is planning to eliminate several tech jobs in Rhode Island.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union Local 2323, which represents Verizon Communications‘ Rhode Island employees, recently announced that the company plans to layoff all of its 291 splice-service technicians who have been hired in Rhode Island and Massachusetts since August 2003.

Verizon announced earlier this year that it planned to eliminate 8,000 jobs in the United States. Union leaders are saying they were told 72 Rhode Island employees would lose their jobs and 219 workers in Massachusetts would lose theirs.The company has reportedly declared 1,246 employees in the two states as “surplus,” with 567 of those being splice-service technicians.

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Those who currently have or are seeking IT jobs in Rhode Island are among the most lucky in the state.

Rhode Island’s information industry was the only one to see an over-the-year increase in jobs during September, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry employed 10,800 workers during September, down from 10,900 in August, but an increase of 3.8 percent from last year.

The state saw a total non-farm employment of 478,200 workers during September, down from 479,500 during August and a decrease of 2.6 percent from last year. The industry that took the hardest hit was natural resources and mining, which employed 200 workers, the same as August, but a 33.3 percent decrease from last year.

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Rhode Island IT jobs will continue to grow for the next six years.

In June 2008, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Rhode Island’s information industry employed 11,000 people, a 4.8 percent increase from last year.

Rhode Island employment as a whole is expected to increase by more than 55,000 jobs through 2014. Employment that year is projected to reach 573,437, an increase of 10.7 percent or 55,292 jobs from 2004.

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