It's no surprise that with the current economic conditions we will see a decrease in total IT jobs and IT salaries will see almost no growth in 2009. What does this mean for human resources (HR) professionals? First, that it's critical to identify and protect your top performers during reductions in force. And second, that now may be the right time to upgrade your IT talent. Forrester analyzed the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Survey data to identify hiring and salary trends for computer-related jobs through 2007 and then used these trends to forecast 2008 and 2009 IT occupation trends.