It’s the dog days of summer so what better time to check in on the health of the IT industry.
In the IT staffing industry, the majority of employees are consultants – workers hired to perform a service, at a certain price, within a certain amount of time, and with certain end dates – meaning they’re often seeking new positions at least once or twice per year. For most workers, this can be seen as problematic as most in the unemployment line can tell you finding work is no easy task. So this begs the question, why would anybody purposefully seek out “temporary” work? It’s a fair and valid question – for those outside the IT industry. But as those fortunate enough to be within the industry know, the IT industry is a thriving business.
In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at the strength of the IT industry and highlighting just how in-demand tech talent is and is projected to be.
As the world around us continues to move forward in the digital age the demand for tech workers has never been greater. More and more organizations are rapidly increasing their efforts to get into digital, security, mobile, and big data projects. Of course, with these efforts, organizations need the talent to implement and maintain these endeavors. That’s why, according to a study conducted by recruiting firm Robert Half Technology, 84% of roughly 2,500 CIOs – from 25 major U.S. markets – surveyed said they plan to hire technology workers in the second half of 2016. While a majority of these hiring’s will be filling already existing needs – stressing the importance for the need of even more skilled IT professionals – more than 20% of the hiring’s will be for the addition of more staff to already existing IT departments.
So what types of positions are out there and what are the roles that need to be filled? Great question.
According to the same Robert Half survey, the No. 1 in-demand IT skill for the remainder of 2016 will be network administration. As computing environments become increasingly complex, the need for Network Administrators – professionals who can ensure that a firm’s infrastructure, from hardware, to software, to wireless, is fully functional – has never been greater. Organizations are looking to optimize their network performance and with that the need for IT professionals with the capability of making that happen will be needed for the foreseeable future.
As companies continue to implement these new technologies, customer-facing and end-user-facing roles will also be needed. That’s why Desktop Support and Help Desk professionals will also be in high demand for the remainder of 2016 – and well beyond. Nearly all of the U.S. workforce uses technology in some way and as we all know it doesn’t always function the way it’s supposed to. Organizations can’t afford to have their employee’s offline for days – or even hours – at a time. So it should come as little surprise that the need for professionals with desktop support skills, who are trained at getting your devices back online, would be in such high demand.
Along with Network Administrators and Desktop Support technicians, Database Management professionals round out the top 3 in-demand IT skills for the remainder of the year. Workers with these skills help plan and implement databases to meet business needs. Since databases – a collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data – are essentially the backbone of technology, professionals who know how to run and administer them are crucial for any business.
Now that we’ve addressed the most sought after tech talent for the remainder of 2016 let’s take a quick peek at what the future holds for the IT industry.
According to a recent study by Modis – a leader among global IT staffing industries – where they tracked hiring, salary and industry trends across the nation, they’re forecasting some fantastic growth in the very near future. By the year 2022 – in only 6 short years – they’re projecting an 18% growth in the tech industry as compared to only 10.8% growth in all other industries combined. That means an additional 685,000 new tech jobs for the industry! Literally no other industry can boast that type of growth.
And where specifically will tech be growing? Almost everywhere. The same study expects to see an increase in demand – and in salary – for the following tech sectors and jobs: Health IT; Analysts; Database Development, Administration and Business Intelligence; Programming and Software Engineering; Project Management; Security; and Web Development.
So where should we be telling our children to focus their attention? It’s painfully obvious – the IT industry!
Have anything to add? Feel free to let us know! We’d love to hear from you.
Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
