The shortage of tech talent is not a new problem but has now reached a critical stage and it will be a significant challenge for businesses to find skilled talent.
Here are some impressive numbers from CompTIA:
- In June, employers posted more than 365,000 job openings for IT workers, the highest monthly total since September 2019.
- The positions highest in demand include software developers, IT support specialists, systems engineers, architects, and IT project managers.
- Jobs in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or those requiring rising tech skills accounted for 28 percent of all open positions.
Why the boom, you ask?
The Covid-19 pandemic caused an unparalleled wave of tech adoption for businesses across all industries – as companies learned to work remotely and connect with customers virtually, they essentially jammed a decade’s worth of tech adoption and digital transformation into a single whirlwind year. The same is true for consumer tech, with video game development, entertainment tech, and social platforms flourishing.
Simultaneously, remote work became the status quo in the tech industry. Suddenly, software talent could pick and choose from an extensive pool of job opportunities. All while existing talent is beginning to stray. Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trends Index found that 40 percent of workers are considering making a job change.
Companies need to step you their game to land a quality engineer beyond competitive salaries. Offering incentives like flexible hours, sign-on bonuses, and permanent remote work, the last of which has become a requirement for much of the workforce. A recent report found only 17 percent of technologists wanted to work in an office full time, while 59 percent wanted remote and hybrid approaches.
Across all industries, ‘remote work’ job listings have increased 457 percent, according to recent LinkedIn data, with the tech sector a leader in job listings. Companies that fail to figure out how to offer this flexibility won’t be able to attract the talent they need.
The pandemic transformed nearly every organization into a tech company. Although the competition will be fierce for qualified tech talent, companies can start laying the groundwork now to keep their pipeline full of viable candidates.
