SubTopic EMM tools
IT jobs market booms, but talent in short supply
Many companies need to fill IT jobs this year, but there's a shortage of available talent, and many haven't figured out the mobile skills they need.
Jake O'Donnell, Site Editor
Most companies expect a difficult IT hiring environment in 2015, as many open positions demand a level of skill that few in the IT jobs market have.
Depending on how you slice the numbers in CompTIA's IT Industry Outlook 2015 survey of 649 companies in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., the IT hiring environment has both good and bad aspects. There were 4.88 million IT workers in the U.S. at the end of 2014, up 2.4% (about 116,000 jobs) from 2013. That's up from a 2.1% growth in 2013. National job growth across the entire economy in 2013 was up 1.5-1.8% by comparison, CompTIA said.
Web developers saw the largest growth among IT occupations in 2014 at 4%, followed by information security analysts, computer systems analysts, application developers and systems software developers, according to CompTIA's report.
Demands for enterprise mobility in that group include information security and application development. But when it comes to mobile management, companies are still unsure of how to find the right personnel, said Tim Herbert, CompTIA's vice president for research and market analysis.
"Companies are asking, 'How does [mobility] relate to support or other positions in the organization of the company, or does it introduce some demand for new skills?'" he said.
CompTIA also studied the top skills cited in 2014 IT job postings, tracking the skills mentioned in over 2.2 million postings in the U.S. The top skills cited were, in order, SQL, Java, Oracle, JavaScript and Linux. The top five job titles were, in order, software development engineer, Java software developer, systems engineer, network engineer and .NET developer. Application developers were 10th overall.
Despite these positive gains, companies still find it difficult to get the right people to fill open IT jobs. Forty-two percent of companies said their IT departments were understaffed, Herbert said.
Many companies believe the competition around talent will intensify.
Tim Herbertresearch VP, CompTIA
"There is still some pent-up demand for hiring and that's a carryover from the last couple years," Herbert said. "We're continuing to see a broad-based demand for these services across the economy."
As a result, 68% of executives at IT companies believe they will have a challenging or very challenging time in the IT hiring market in 2015, according to CompTIA's survey.
"Many companies believe the competition around talent will intensify," Herbert said.
Senior managers who work with IT pros must have good technical chops and in many instances that's not always the case, said Craig Mathias, founder of wireless advisory firm the Farpoint Group in Ashland, Mass.
"There are not enough really good people working in the field," Mathias said. "I get calls several times a week from clients who are looking for people to hire."
Simon Bramfitt, a virtualization analyst at Entelechy Associates in Concord, Calif., has also heard from recruiters in search of IT talent.
"They ask, 'We need someone to fill this part or role, do you know anybody?'" he said. "My response for the last year, or even longer than that, has almost universally been, 'I'm sorry, but everyone I know is working.'"
While automated systems have helped companies manage support requests with limited IT staff, there's still a glaring need for tech support professionals when things go wrong, Mathias said.
"The productivity lost due to downtime, as well as confusion or errors caused by staff not being trained, there are serious costs there," he said.
Older Citrix certifications in demand
In some instances, demand for skills in today's IT hiring market extends to certifications that aren't even available.
Research firm Foote Partners LLC of Vero Beach, Fla., tracked the fastest-growing IT certifications in terms of cash bonuses paid out to nearly 55,000 IT professionals at 2,688 companies in the final six months of 2014.
The Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE) for Virtualization certification was first in the Foote Partners survey, followed by CompTIA Security+, Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA), GIAC Certified Windows Security Administrator and CWNP/Certified Wireless Design Professional.
Both of the in-demand Citrix certifications are no longer attainable. The Citrix CCEE for Virtualization was retired in November 2014 and replaced with a new certification, Citrix Certified Professional-Virtualization. The CCEA was retired in 2012 and replaced with the CCEE for Virtualization.
Citrix's previous system worked when the company had a "narrow" product set, but now it's been refocused around new technologies, said Bramfitt.
Older Citrix certifications may be in demand now, but that's only a symptom of companies needing to eventually catch up to the latest available certifications, he said.
"There's lag in the system with recruiting based on older exams and certifications because that's what people have out there," he said.
Citrix's products are complicated platforms and employers look to extract maximum value from those platforms by bringing in people with provable certifications, Bramfitt added.
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Jake O'Donnell asks:
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Jake O'Donnell - 6 Mar 2015 6:46 AM
Alfred47 - 9 Mar 2015 11:59 AM
We handle the competition that comes with hiring in IT by fists considering the specifics of the job in relation to informational security as well as application development. However, mobile management requires us to look into the potential employee on how he handles SQL, Java, Linux, Oracle as well as JavaScript. This goes hand in hand with the talent the potential employee is bringing on the table as the current technology requires high innovation skills.
Pepsiman - 10 Mar 2015 7:10 PM
It won't be long before the world will be asking for Glassware 2.0 Engineers. Ask Simon, he knows.
abuell - 14 Mar 2015 1:46 PM
Well, at my company, one initiative that they've tried is to implement a company-wide Corporate Mentoring Program to improve employee engagement, hoping to address employee retention and the costs of replacing an employee.
In addition, we are looking re-instating an internship program in the IT department to bring in new talent. IT leadership and HR are also trying to establish a relationship with a local university that has several IT and engineering programs. Some managers have also spent a good amount of time networking in the local community, as well as keeping in touch with former employees, and in some cases, trying to get them to come back.
Jason48 - 9 Mar 2015 1:59 PM
Why is IT still understaffed if everyone is working? I believe older IT employees are being displaced much faster than new employees are being trained.
Eileen15 - 17 Mar 2015 9:01 PM
The problem is first and foremost the recruiters. You have non IT people trying to understand IT apps and how they match up to a job. They fail miserably every time. Please submit a resume for a particular position to Monster and see what kind of calls you get. That can be your next article. "I wanted to be Helpdesk, why I am getting System Administrator offers?"
mcorum - 18 Mar 2015 9:40 AM
I think a large part of the problem is the speed at which technology improves and new technologies are available outpaces the ability of the available talent to keep up. This can create an atmosphere where you have a lot of dilettantes that are not qualified for the positions that are available. It doesn't even have to be new technology. Take test automation as an example. I see hundreds of resumes that list experience with certain popular automation tools, but the knowledge is superficial, and does not qualify the candidate for a position that performs test automation.
Ben Rubenstein - 18 Mar 2015 11:40 AM
Eileen, I definitely agree on the recruiter piece - I don't have a traditional IT background, but that doesn't stop the emails/LinkedIn messages about new sysadmin jobs coming to me!
ncberns - 6 Jun 2015 9:16 AM
Companies need to start growing from within. That takes planning and effort. It means instituting internal training. After all, who else knows exactly what skill set is needed? Who else knows all the internal work minutia as well?
It's far easier - and infinitely more cost effective - to hire those who are almost ready and then train them to advance internally. Not only does the company get better employees, the process builds stronger internal relationships and far better camaraderie.
Michael Larsen - 25 Jun 2015 10:15 PM
Judging from the LinkedIn contacts I get and the requests being made, I find it both amusing, and perhaps a little sad, that the recruiters looking to reach out to me have really not read my resume, or have difficulty understanding what it is that I actually do.
ToddN2000 - 23 Feb 2016 12:11 PM
Some recruiter are very good, they do a lot of their research first. Other are just out to make their fee. Over the past 30 or so years I only had one real good recruiter. She never sent me for a job that was beneath or above my skill level. It saved a lot of useless interviews. Sadly she passed away a few years back. It also take a company that can define what they want, if they do not know then how can they determine the skills they need a new hire to have?
AlbertGareev - 9 Mar 2016 12:50 PM
But how many of those openings are fake or outdated?
Fake positions is a well known and commonly used to draw candidates and build up resume database.
Many positions get "cloned" by the agencies and stay up even when the original opening is no longer available.