There's an article in the Dec. 2010 Harvard Business Review which explores the following issue in its title: What's the Hard Return on Employee Wellness Programs? The article examines approaches that companies such as Johnson & Johnson have taken to lower their health care costs through a structured approach to help workers make improvements to their social, mental and physical health.

For its part, J&J executives estimate that its wellness programs have saved the company $250 million in health care costs over the past decade. From 2002 through 2008, the return on its wellness efforts was $2.71 for every dollar spent.

After a three-year downturn, it was only a matter of time before the economy picked up, business expanded and demand for IT workers accelerated.

For those who might question the strength of the economic recovery, consider these statistics from a recent Motley Fool article revenue for the S&P 500 is more than $250 billion higher over the past 12 months than it was in 2007. Meanwhile, corporate profits now represent 9.5 percent of GDP, well above the 6.0 percent average since 1947 and one of the highest percentages recorded since then.

Enterprise IT spending is on the rise and companies are beginning to (conservatively ) hire staff again, right? Not so fast. While there have been encouraging signs and reports, a new study suggests that 2010 is actually looking a lot like 2009.

In May, Gartner estimated that enterprise IT spending will climb 4.1 percent this year after falling 5.6 percent in 2009, echoing expectations for moderate growth voiced by Forrester, IDC and others. And numerous reports have shown optimism among CIOs that they'll be adding employees again this year. Well, research firm Computer Economics' annual IT Staffing and Benchmarks report isn't quite as optimistic.