The IT jobs market, like the rest of the economy, is in a state of flux. While the April jobs report from the Department of Labor was considered positive, in early May it was reported that there were 3.8 million open positions, despite 11 million people looking for work. With technology ever-evolving and the needs of the IT channel shifting just as quickly, IT Principals are having a difficult time landing the impactful talent they need to answer the day's challenges.
In a recent ZDNet column, Ken Hess broke down the current state of IT jobs and tech certifications. He mentioned that any internet search for predictions about the future of the jobs market will bring up everything from bleak to bright outlooks. Essentially, any kind of accurate guess is impossible to make and even the experts don't know what will happen.
Hess offered up a more negative view of the IT jobs market and focused on several factors that are hurting the U.S. tech space.
First, there is the growing debate over H1B visas. Hess argued that with companies bringing in foreign employees instead of looking locally, the psyche of American tech workers has been damaged. Second, there is a growing reliance on cheap labor outsourcing to Central America, South America, India and Eastern Europe that is slowing the growth of the American technology workforce. Finally, there is a lack of a governing body like the Bar for lawyers to regulate IT certifications and education. For the most part, experience is going to trump certification every time anyway.
"The solution is to invest in our own infrastructure and our own people. It's that simple," Hess wrote. "If you offered the same training to our own people that you do to offshore workers, you'd have a much stronger economy, a larger tax base, and a stronger retail market."
Impactful talent is what fuels an enterprise. In the tech world, many organizations rely on solutions providers to help them get by, and VARs and MSPs that are partnered with VAR Staffing can offer the top notch resources companies need.
