The new ITAA survey says that 578,711 IT positions will go unfulfilled in 2002 because of a lack of skilled IT professionals, if this is the case then where are all the opportunities?
The survey breaks down into the following five categories as the most acute for shortages:
Technical support 143,683
Network design and administration 98,097
Programming and SW engineering 80,524
Web development and administration 72,722
Database development and administration 57,037
According to mega job board Dice.com hot spots, within these job categories are
C++, Oracle, SQL, Java, Windows NT and systems security.
As a side note, another current survey from IT research firm Foote Partners tells us that in the areas of infrastructure skills such as networking, security and databases, certifications help, IT staff with certifications typically receive a premium or bonus pay of 18 percent compared to their peers without certification and are more in demand during down times in the staffing industry.
So where are all the jobs if there is such a shortage?
Last year, on average, most companies reduced their IT staff in the range of 4% to 15%, and many reductions were contract IT staff. This year, the same ITAA survey predicts demand will increase by 27%. We feel the same and are still waiting and expecting to see this pick up in demand from our clients. Remember, this is still a vibrant industry and worldwide IT services are on track to reach $557 billion this year according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Inc. Our share in Canada is $18.4 billion, of which an estimated $6 billion is spent on IT contractors.