Communications of the ACM
Labor Shortage Persists in Some Fields
Credit: Davey Thompson / The Wall Street Journal
Despite the still-high unemployment figures around the United States, many tech companies are unable to find suitable candidates to fill their new openings. Companies have slowly begun to hire again: in January, employers added 36,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The number of job openings has grown more rapidly. There were 4.3 million advertised job openings in January, up 16 percent from a year ago. Nationwide, there were about four unemployed people for every job opening posted online in December. However, disparities underlie the overall rate. Finding highly qualified applicants for more technical positions is proving a challenge for some companies. Many are winding up changing their business strategy or settling for less-than-perfect candidates.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that some skills needed are so rare that companies are now willing to hire computer engineers without related experience and train them on the job. A software engineer with no experience might start at $50,000, but after a few years of work and the right skills, talented engineers can easily make $150,000 or more. It's not just technology companies feeling the pinch. Finance, accounting and healthcare companies also have reported significant increases in new openings. While openings for marketing managers, recruiters and administrative positions get a lot of applications, filling more technical positions has been a challenge. Even when a major company advertises for openings in its IT consulting practice, which require experience and sometimes advanced degrees, they might only get 10 resumes in a week, and even fewer will meet the qualifications.
According to the Conference Board, even if all 225,500 job seekers whose last jobs were computer and math-related were to take a current opening, there would still be nearly 350,000 positions left to fill. That makes finding certain kinds of engineers extremely competitive. Companies are taking steps like rewarding employees with bonuses for hiring referrals for the most-needed positions. To support the hiring increase, some companies have tried to bolster their recruiting staff. So many companies are ramping up their recruiting levels right now, that it's hard to find contract recruiters. Again and again, tech companies point out that they are having trouble matching the skills they require to the skills of the applicants they see. Very few qualified candidates come through job listings, despite the fact that some positions have almost a perpetual job opening.
From The Wall Street Journal
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