Both eBay and Facebook have posted wanted adds over the past week in hopes of beefing up their tech teams. With F5 and Amazon already snapping up talent for the past year, the jobs market in this sector is tightening up.
Facebook launched its Seattle operation 18 months ago with 3 employees who sported little more than the laptops in their hands and the shoes on their feet. The operation now has more than 60 employees. It plans to move its operations from its current Pike Place Market location as it searches for more space. While 60 employees may not seem like much, the Seattle office is still Facebook’s biggest outside of its headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.
This is welcome news for the local technology job market, which earlier had to absorb the news of Warner Brothers Interactive laying off 60 people from their Seattle-area offices. With eBay seeking to double their current roster from 75 to 150, and many other tech companies also growing, there should be growing demand for designers, developers and programmers.
Robert Half reports that the tight market for tech talent in Seattle is mirrored nationwide. Here are unemployment rates in key categories during the fourth quarter of 2011:
- Computer network architects: 0.5%
- Database administrators: 0.8%
- Computer hardware engineers: 2.2%
- Computer and information systems managers: 2.4%
- Computer systems analysts: 2.7%
- Computer programmers: 3.6%
- Web developers: 3.6%
- Software developers, application and system software: 4.4%