If you were on CareerBuilder’s recent webinar (you can still listen here) about 2011′s Opportunities in Staffing report findings, you’re already privy to many interesting details about the state of the staffing industry today; what your candidates, employees and clients think of your firm; and how you can make a bigger impact in your recruitment efforts.

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If you’re in a staffing firm placing candidates in the IT, tech and scientific sector, however, you have unique challenges that may not have been specifically addressed in the main report — and also significant opportunities to grow and improve this near year — which is why we’ve broken down the key findings from this particular sector for you below. Opportunities in Staffing’s findings may prove to be key in helping you grow your IT staffing firm and gain an edge in an extremely competitive industry in which jobs often outweigh available candidates.

Did you know, for example, that 43 percent of active clients of IT, tech and scientific staffing firms have also used a staffing firm as part of their personal job search at some point in their career? How you treat job seekers now can have a huge impact on how clients or employees treat you later on.

What’s really going on with your employees, candidates and clients? A few highlights:

EMPLOYEES

• Your employees are largely motivated by company pride: Internal staff rate their pride in working for their staffing firm highest among satisfaction drivers.
• Gen Y is a large component of the tech workforce: Roughly 27 percent of IT, tech and scientific staffing professionals belong to Generation Y (18-31 years old), significantly higher than most other sectors.
• Employees want more training opportunities: One of the areas most often rated lower by IT, tech and scientific staffing employees is around potential for advancement and training opportunities that support personal development.
• Many of them feel stuck: 42 percent said they didn’t feel they had opportunities for advancement within their firm, lower than staffing employees working in other sectors.
• They want more money: Only 29 percent expect their total compensation to stay the same or decline in the next year.

CANDIDATES

• You’re currently missing out on the majority of job seekers: A mere 19 percent of people looking for IT, tech and scientific-related jobs use a staffing or recruiting firm as part of their job search (Figure 13) and fewer than 5 percent start their job search with a staffing or recruiting firm.
• Job seekers want to connect with you on mobile: 28 percent of IT, tech and scientific job seekers view staffing firm websites on a mobile device, and 52 percent review job opportunities on a mobile device, significantly higher than in many other sectors.
• They’re savvy about how they want to receive information: Almost 80 percent say they would be open to receiving text updates about new job opportunities, or updates on jobs they’ve already applied for throughout the job search.
• There is still a large gap in male versus female job seekers: Less than 30 percent of job seekers in the IT, tech and scientific industry are female.

CLIENTS

• There is a big opportunity for firms to grow their business: The typical client only employs one or two staffing services.
• There’s a significant lack of awareness of firms: On average, clients of an IT, tech and scientific staffing firm can name between 1 and 2 additional staffing firms from memory, lower than the unaided awareness in any other staffing sector.
• Many clients were once your candidates (and had a bad experience): While nearly a third of this group rate their experience working with IT staffing firms as a job seeker very high (32 percent), even more (38 percent) rate the experience as being poor

These findings only cover a fraction of Opportunities in Staffing’s IT, tech and scientific sector findings – download the report here to read up on all the details or share with your colleagues.

Which results surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below.