IT Workforce Study - presented by NorTech

We've reported here for the last few months that the tech sector continues to perform well.  However, an ongoing challenge for the industry is the availability of talent in the region, both from the existing labor pool and students entering the workforce.

NorTech commissioned a study on the regional IT workforce and results were recently released. Key findings include:

• Approximately 96,000 IT professionals are employed in the region
  
• Most common IT professions were: business application specialists (31%), programmers (13%), network specialists (7%) and IS analysts (5%)
  
• Demand for workers in 2006 and 2007 was highest for application specialists, programmers, software engineers/architects and Web developers
  
  
  Demand for workers continues to outpace supply of higher education graduates:
• The largest gaps include enterprise systems analysts, and programmers/developers
• Enrollment has declined from a peak of 21,174 in 2000-2001 to 9,243 in 2006-2007
• Work experience is crucial particularly for smaller tech firms in the region. However, only about 20% of employers offered at least one form of work-based learning experience in 2006.
• Prominent technical skills include HTML, Java, SQL, VB, XML and C .  However, soft skills are critically important, too, particularly project management, adaptability, team-building and the ability to apply IT applications to business objectives.

Download the full report HERE.  

NEOSA will work closely with NorTech to identify action items and a roadmap to address the critical issues identified in this study.