PLENTY OF TECH JOBS, BUT ... FEW WORKERS WHO HAVE THE CHOPS
By 2020, there will be 1.4M more software development jobs than qualified applicants
Jobs creation has been the mantra of President Trump. But in some industries such as tech, the U.S. doesn’t need more jobs — it needs workers with more of the right skills.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts there will be 1.4 million more software development jobs than applicants who can fill them by 2020.
The problem: A “perception gap” between educators and employers has left scores of jobs unfilled, according to new research from the Career Advisory Board, which closely tracks the jobs market.
Only 11% of employers believe higher education is “very effective” in readying graduates to meet skills needed in their organizations, according to the January survey of 501 U.S. hiring managers, human resource specialists and executives. Some 62% said students were unprepared.
The jobs gap is especially pronounced by age: 72% of respondents agreed that Millennials are keeping pace with technology but only half of Baby Boomers are, the survey said.
There are more than 500,000 open computing jobs nationwide, but less than 43,000 computerscience students graduated into the workforce last year, according to Code.org, a non-profit group dedicated to expanding access to computer science.
Last year, the White House claimed the federal government alone needed an additional 10,000 IT and cybersecurity professionals.
Trump has yoked his political success to creating new jobs. Many of the successes he has claimed have involved traditional manufacturing, a once steady and high-paid sector that’s declined with automation and offshoring.
This week, he touted the creation of 150 U.S. jobs at Ford Motor (moves in the works before his administration) and signed an executive order rolling back Obama-era climate change regulations in a bid to create more jobs for coal miners.
The availability of so many tech jobs — particularly in coding, the Internet of Things, big data and cybersecurity — presents an opportunity for Trump to make good on his promise to help frustrated workers while pursuing a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and major changes to the H-1B visa program, educators and tech
A “perception gap” between educators and employers has left scores of jobs unfilled, according to new research.
leaders say.
“The jobs are already here,” says Rob Paul, president of DeVry University, which conducted research online for Career Advisory Board and offers educational services that includes boot camps for tech skills. “Speed is of the essence in filling them.”
The emergence of boot camps has slightly eased the problem in getting thousands of Americans up to snuff in skills for coding, Internet of Things, big data, cybersecurity and high-tech manufacturing but doesn’t go nearly far enough, Paul and others say.
“When I worked within Silicon Valley, it boggled my mind — there were so many available jobs,” says Randi Zuckerberg, CEO of Zuckerberg Media, which is partnering with DeVry and others to “get kids, especially girls, excited” about science, technol- ogy and math. Zuckerberg ’s 6year-old son took a course in robotics.
“A lot of progress is being made, but we need to ramp it up,” says Zuckerberg, whose brother is Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.
“Every company now is really a tech company, with needs for social media, supply management and distribution. The jobs will grow exponentially.”