The lack of skilled IT workers is hurting the deployment of emerging technology, according to a new survey from Gartner. In areas from cloud to cybersecurity, this crisis is expected to last for years to come.
The booming market grew 2%
to about 7.3 million workers last year as the digital economy continued to
flourish in jobs for software, cybersecurity and cloud computing, according to
Cyberstates 2017, an annual analysis of the nation's tech industry by technology
association CompTIA.
The vast majority - 6.9
million were employed by tech companies. But many worked as technologists in
other industries such as banking and healthcare, underlining the opportunity
for workers with the right skills especially outside hubs like Silicon Valley.
And the profession pays:
Tech workers, on average, earned $108,900 in 2016 more than twice the national
wage of $53,040, CompTIA says.
It all adds up to about 4%
of the total U.S. workforce and a $1.3 trillion industry, about 8% of the
national economy, says Tim Herbert, senior vice president for research and
market intelligence at CompTIA.
In July, the tech sector
added some 9,600 new jobs, led by the creation of about 4,900 positions in IT
and software services, and computer system design, according to a new CompTIA
report. The growth of these positions demonstrates businesses' expanding use of
cloud-based technology and Everything as a Service, the report stated.
The US IT sector has grown
in terms of jobs each month this year, except for April, CompTIA found after
analyzing IT job trends based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By
the end of July, the field had added about 72,100 new positions.
Software development talent
continues to be the most in-demand role in the field, with nearly 61,000 job
postings in July, the report found.
Why
are fewer workers hired?
"Despite the positive
employment growth for the year, the job posting data suggests employer demand
should translate to even more tech worker hiring," Tim Herbert, senior
vice president of research and market intelligence at CompTIA, said in a press
release. "A combination of factors such as skills gaps, pipeline gaps,
location gaps, and pay gaps can contribute to fewer workers hired than
needed."
July also saw new positions
created in the following IT fields:
The IT field tends to be
more volatile than other areas from month to month, CompTIA noted, reflecting
normal patterns of worker turnover due to resignations, retirements, and
layoffs.
Where
is the growth?
The report found that as
more companies, tech and non-tech, migrate to cloud computing and other
software services, so do jobs nationwide. The number of tech jobs in 35 states
and the District of Columbia, for example, grew in 2016 with surges in
employment in California (software, IT services), New York, North Carolina
(cloud computing), Texas and Michigan (research and development, automotive).
Midwest too has seen an
uptick in the use of technology for health care and business data analysis. For
years, Midwest was considered a manufacturing hub but now tech start-up scene
is growing.
A separate study, affirms
the growth of tech-related jobs in the Midwest and South. Emerging tech hubs in
Nashville, Detroit and Cincinnati, among others, illustrate potential growth in
fields such as health care, connected cars and e-commerce, says Michael Mandel
of Progressive Policy Institute, who conducted the study for TechNet, a
bipartisan network of tech executives.
The number and
attractiveness of these jobs and the industry's poor track record recruiting
and promoting women and under-represented minorities has led organizations like
Black Girls Code and the Kapor Center for Social Impact to push for more
training and access.
According to a study by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission based on 2014 data - tech companies
employed more whites and Asian-Americans than other industries on average and
lag hiring African Americans, Hispanics and women.
Skills
Gap
For the industry in general,
a sizable skills gap exists between what college graduates know and what many employers
are seeking, according to yet another report. According to a survey of 501 U.S.
hiring managers, human resource specialists and executives by the Career
Advisory Board; only 11% of employers believe higher education is "very
effective" in readying graduates to meet skills needed in their
organizations,
Jobs experts warn the gap
could deepen as the need for software engineers accelerates with the continued
growth of artificial intelligence, robots and other fledgling industries
"If anything, we should
expect even more demand for tech jobs," says Dennis Yang, CEO of Udemy, an
online learning platform. "If you retrain and re-skill millions of folks
already in the field with tech skills that is as important as high school and
college graduates."
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