US will face shortfall of 850,000 IT workers over next year
Nitish S Rele
Information technology professionals, especially of Indian origin, take note. The demand for IT workers in the United States over the next 12 months will increase to about 1.6 million. There will be a shortfall of nearly 850,000 skilled workers.
These findings were revealed in a study, 'Bridging the Gap: IT Skills for a New Millennium,' just released by the Information Technology Association of America.
The key findings of the study:
- The 10 million-strong IT work force is far larger than might have been expected on the basis of previous studies.
- The demand for IT professionals is widespread, with interesting variations by geographic region. The South has the largest number of IT workers overall. The Mid-West has the largest demand for IT jobs -- 35 per cent of the total. The western region is second with 28 per cent.
- Technical support jobs are in demand for both IT and non-IT companies (one-third of all new positions over the next 12 months).
- Fifty per cent of all jobs are in the two positions that exist in almost every organisation -- technical support and network administration. While database development and software engineering positions occur in only a portion of firms, they represent 20 per cent of new IT positions.
- The single most important skill is a good knowledge base in the relevant area.
- The second most desirable skill is hands-on experience.
- Managers identified a large number of methods to acquire skills. Four-year colleges, private technical institutes, seminars and short courses, informal training and community colleges were all selected as effective methods to develop skills for applicants.
- Four-year colleges and private technical institutes were rated highest among pre-hire skill-acquisition methods when compared to all positions.
The sponsors of the study were Cisco Systems, Complete Business Solutions, Cyborg Systems, DeVry, ITI, ITT Technical Institute, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corp, the Society for Information Management and SRA International.
The ITAA provides global public policy, business networking and national leadership to promote the continued rapid growth of the IT industry. It consists of 400 direct and 26,000 affiliate corporate members throughout the US, and a global network of 41 countries' IT associations.
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