Tech companies are hiring, but who’s applying?
By Seattle Business Magazine September 17, 2010
Job opportunities in computer science have taken off in Washington State since last year. As of April 2010, computer software engineers are second only to health care professionals in number of job vacancies.
Susan Sigl, CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association, says shes noticed the increased demand this year. There are currently 665 positions posted at the companys job center, and roughly 75 percent of those are in software, IT and engineering positions.
However, Sigl notes that many of these vacant positions are tough to fill.
The telling statistics are that 87 percent of the WTIAs Job Center listings require a college degree and 68 percent require 5-7 years of experience, Sigl says via email. It isnt necessarily that the tech sector is creating significantly more jobs, even though there appears to be some of that, but rather the competition for experienced, high quality technical candidates is fierce and the best companies are not lowering their requirement standards, so these positions remain unfilled.
In other words, what looks like an increase in hiring at first glance may in fact be a widening job gap. Demand for talent in the tech industry outweighs supply, leaving jobs unfilled. The data shows that job opportunities in Washington State are on the rise. Whether or not there are trained workers ready to fill these jobs is another matter.
More to come on this story.