Technical Staffing Trends: Increasing Shortages of IT Professionals

  

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By: Stephanie Parra

A reoccurring theme of the monthly Dice Reports is technical professional shortages. Going through multiple Dice Reports, I have noticed that the number of technical jobs (full-time, part-time and contract positions) continues to increase month-to-month. Technology continues to advance at a pace that fuels companies to continuously hire new employees. Shortages of technical professionals can be attributed to a number of things such as a lack of degrees, increasing demand and need for certain skill sets.

Demand

As technology wars between companies and products continue to heat up, the demand for technical professionals climb. Not to mention all the tech jobs already available, the increase of mobile and cloud-based applications furthers the demand for technical professionals. Companies are looking to find candidates to fill positions, but they are also set out to find those who are extremely tech savvy in order to stay afloat in the competitive game. However, hiring managers are finding it hard to find people with the skill sets that fit their open positions. Finding qualified people is very time consuming, and these days, extremely aggressive among competing companies. One way managers have looked to offset the shortages and competition is by looking to outside IT recruiting agencies, like Infusive Solutions, for assistance in finding top tech talent. Everyday at Infusive Solutions, the recruiting team finds that more positions are opening up for technical professionals and they set out to help hiring managers find people with skill sets that will fill their open positions.

The most difficult skill-set or position to fill today in the Northeast Region:

1. Java

2. Mobile

3. .Net

4. SAP

5. Web Developers

Shortages

First, nearly every state in America has seen a decline in the number of computer related bachelor’s degrees. According the “America’s Tech Talent Crunch” article, Craig Barrett, former CEO and Chairman of the Board of Intel states that “The reason is pretty simple. In the United States, students either choose not to major in engineering or they do not make it through the system”. As a student at Syracuse University, I have noticed that many students who are Engineering and Computer Science majors put long hours at computer labs and have a course load that is much heavier than other majors. Because of these factors, students often drop the major and pick up a major that is less time consuming. Students are not willing to put in long hours and take hard class to obtain this type of degree, even though it is one area where jobs are continuously opening.

According to the May Dice Report, the top 10 shortage states are:

1. California

2. New Jersey

3. Texas

4. New York

5. Massachusetts

6. Illinois

7. Washington

8. Connecticut

9. Virginia

10. Washington, D.C.

As technology continues to advance in many areas such as applications and clouding computing, available jobs for technical professionals will further increase. However, these jobs will not be filled unless future students take interest in what the technical professional field has to offer.