The Technology Job Market is Strong
Posted on June 24, 2008 Comments (5)
Technology: It’s Where the Jobs Are by Arik Hesseldahl, Business Week:
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Seattle added a net 7,800 jobs [in 2006], followed by the New York and Washington (D.C.) metro areas, which added more than 6,000 jobs apiece. The fastest-growing area on a percentage basis was the combined metro area of Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., which saw its tech-employment figures grow by 12%.
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The highest concentration of technology workers – 286 for every 1,000 workers – was in, no surprise, Silicon Valley. Boulder, Colo., came in second, with 230, and Huntsville, Ala.; Durham, N.C.; and Washington rounded out the top five in density.
Now for the answer to the question on everyone’s mind: Where are the highest salaries? That would be Silicon Valley, where the average tech worker is paid $144,000 a year. That’s nearly double the $80,000 national average for tech jobs.
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More than 850,000 IT jobs will be added during the 10-year period ending in 2016, which would be a rise of 24%. Add all the jobs that will replace retiring workers, and the total increase could be a tidy 1.6 million. That means one job in every 19 created over the course of the next decade will be in technology.
And while demand for tech-savvy employees is certainly multiplying, another survey, this one from the Computing Research Assn. and released in March, found a 20% drop in the number of students completing degrees in computer-related fields, and the number of students enrolling in these programs is the lowest it’s been in 10 years, as far back as the data go.
Related: Engineering Graduates Again in Great Shape – What Graduates Should Know About an IT Career – IT Employment Hits New High Again – The IT Job Market – posts on technology, science and engineering careers
Categories: Career, Students, Technology
Tags: computer science, engineering education, jobs, Technology, undergraduate students
5 Responses to “The Technology Job Market is Strong”
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June 28th, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
For pete’s sake stay away from Liberal Arts! A lot of people take ‘soft’ subjects in high school to increase the number of ‘points’ they’ll get. Then they go take more soft subjects in University.
The result? Congratulations! You may have just wasted the best years of your life. A Liberal Arts degree qualifies you for a mediocre office job. If you’re lucky.
They were fine when few people had them (about 40 years ago). Liberal Arts faculties were finishing schools for the sons and daughters of the gentry.
Now? If Daddy is rich, fine, otherwise get into hard sciences and maths, if you’ve got the brains, or if not, get some technical qualification that’s in demand, and save on getting a fat loan for a near-worthless degree.
[rant over].
August 6th, 2008 @ 10:10 am
With an entire generation of baby boomers retiring and only half as many generation xers, new students would be doing themselves a favor by selecting engineering or engineering related fields as a major. There will be a great need for expertise in the technical fields and if demand is higher than supply (as it most definitely will be), the salaries of those technical fields will increase exponentially.
August 15th, 2008 @ 7:51 am
In Europe we are finding that the telecoms market is still strong despite the turndown in the economy. I would always a technology degree will be a benefit if you have the right aptitude to work. For those involved in project management, there are lots of different disciplines you can get involved in.
December 3rd, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
850,000 jobs in the next ten years you say, hmm with an annual cap(that is always exceeded) in H1B’s at 85,000 a year for ten years…..well you do the math…
Oh and don’t forget the L1 visa!!!!
December 3rd, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
Engineering is a dying profession in America. Wages are down, unemployment rates for engineers it at an all time high.
Remember when you read these self supporting statistics, an engineer flipping burgers is an employed berger flipper, not an unemployed engineer.
Add the number of engineering graduates to the number of imported low wage H1B and L1 visa holders and you get NEGATIVE JOB GROWTH. But these facts are left out of these reports for obvious reasons, just like wages adjusted for inflation for engineers are stagnant or down, and the average engineering career is about 3 to 5 years.