Microsoft: Thousands Of IT Jobs Going Unfilled

[JMH]

Despite the fact that the national unemployment rate is hovering above 9%, hi-tech companies are finding it tougher than ever to fill all of their open positions, a Microsoft official said.
"Filling our talent need remains a serious challenge," said Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith, in testimony this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/231002904?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Windows

 

[pparks1]

As somebody who recently tried to sell a house, I can say that taking a new job isn't always a simple task anymore. I think tons of people are simply "stuck" in these "great investments" they made. While there may be a lot of IT jobs out there, I don't see tons of IT jobs where I live. And unless the job in another area pays me at least $70,000 more annually..i cannot take the massive loss on my current house to relocate.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
IT was one of those areas that suffered hugely when companies started "off-shoring" almost everything to India and elsewhere on the rather "dubious" idea that it was a HUGE cost saving.

Well as we all know this type of stuff NEVER delivers anything like the predicted savings forcast -- in business there's always more costs than next weeks balance sheet.

Certainly some areas can be out-sourced but you have to choose carefully and wisely and the rapid retreat back into the home country of some of these "off-shored" facilities just amplifies this point.

However because the initial outflow caused many redundancies in W. Europe and the USA people quite wisely decided not to train for these types of jobs which can be moved just on the whim of a CEO wanting to improve the "bottom line" for next week.

Now that there is some sort of recovery taking place (fragile I know but even 0.3% is a recovery) demand is rising and a lot of I.T projects which were deferred are now being implemented. Strange though it might seem companies are actually AWASH with CASH currently (with interest rates at an all time low it doesn't make sense to stash this in the Bank) so there actually IS budget out there to fund these - companies want to take advantage when the full blown recovery starts.

I've actually never had so many e-mails and phone calls asking if I'm available to work on various projects.

The IMO best way to work in IT is to do it via the "Contract" or temp route - the problem with full time "permie" type of posts is once you've done the huge new roll-out / new project what on earth do you do for an "encore" / -- Just stick in maintenance -- not really much of a career path.

Companies need to be more flexible with their employment policies -- fortunately I work with a few decent organisations where I can work remotely (at home) on various days of the week - and it works great.

Ms perhaps needs to get its HR dept in order -- Ms is not a bad name to have on a CV / Resume by the way but when it comes to flexible working they aren't the most imaginative.

Cheers (again on the Eurostar to a new assignment tomorrow !!!! and If at my ripe old age I keep getting contracts it can't be that hard).


jimbo

 

[Dave76]

Good point, jimbo, things have a way of reversing due to results/cost benefits.

 

[profdlp]

I hope at least one of those jobs is still around when I graduate in a year or two.

 

[strollin]

The high unemployment rate doesn't have a whole lot to do with IT anyway. The problem is that the relatively high paying manufacturing jobs have all but disappeared in the US. The skill set for those jobs doesn't match up with IT so those people can't move into the available IT jobs. With the decline of manufacturing jobs, the only jobs that many, with simply a high school education, can qualify for are retail and food service which don't pay nearly as well as the manufacturing jobs that were lost.

My wife used to have one of those manufacturing jobs and with OT, could make $60K/year. Since that job disappeared she has only been able to find lower paying jobs which pay less than half what she was making.

There are jobs available but as was said in the article, there is a skills imbalance. The displaced workers lack the skills to move into higher paying jobs but are overqualified, or simply won't take, the available low paying jobs.

 

[Stratos]

I too agree with Jimbo. It's more about where you live in relation to those job openings. Our region has a problem where we have lots of those with the education (college) but can't get any real job other than being the "computer guy" who simply does printer and very basic software support with a payroll to match the guy working at Al Bundy's shoe store.

To get the good jobs, you almost need to know somebody "inside" in order to get a chance to put your foot even part way into the door.

 

[draftsman]

We need to do something in this country to make it worth their while to move copany operations back into the US. I know coming up with something like that is not an easy proposition. Not doing it isn't easy either, nor financially beneficial.

 

[dustywoodworker]

We need to do something in this country to make it worth their while to move copany operations back into the US. I know coming up with something like that is not an easy proposition. Not doing it isn't easy either, nor financially beneficial.

Those companies that moved offshore did so because there were cost savings by doing so. They are not going to move back unless they recognize cost savings to do so.

Too many people (ITs included), want too much. The cost savings are not likely to be there. Now if there was an IT work force willing to work for "a competitive wage", some of those employers may move back. Will this qualified work force that we are discussing be willing to work for say $50,000/year to start?

BTW that is what I grossed was when I retired and those were the good ole days.

 

[djl47]

I was on a job hunt in 2006 and figured that about one third of the job postings were BS. A few stick in my mind. I remember one where they offered twenty-five bucks an hour (1099) for someone with over ten years of combined mainframe, unix and PC programming experience. I figured that these were personnel directors collecting resumes to justify their continued employment or deliberate, impossible to fill postings by companies seeking to justify an H1B position.

 

[Nigsy]

I' am a Senior Oracle Consultant and I struggle to fill vacancies. It's not the lack of candidates but we are always looking for people with specific skills / modules which makes it increasingly difficult to put excellent all-rounders in front of a client because as soon as they see the consultant profile they throw it back.

IT will always be an area with vacancies because the tech moves so fast, and it takes a special kind of person to commit to national / international travel, and even the holy grail of ' Working From Home ' really is only for the few.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Some demands are still increasing hugely -- things like SAP - for instance -- but it's no good just being a "bog standard ABAP / JAVA etc coder" -- you need to keep up with new technologies such as Web access, B2B, B2C, C2B etc and then there is a huge market.

You also need to understand some of the business processes involved in the company you want to work for too -- there is not so much demand for 100% purely technical positions -- some but nothing like the number around if you can be a bit of a functional consultant too.

The daily rate for these types of jobs can be around 600 - 700 EUR / GBP a day for the right skill set - more if you have experience with some highly niche module too.

Note though in some areas IT can actually pay LOWER than it was paying 10 years ago !!! so you do need to acquire the right skill set.

In Belgium especially Brussels, Holland, Germany and Switzerland the market is still booming - in spite of the current problems with Wall St / US Politicians, European politicians / Bankers all not having a clue in what to do next to solve the trillions of dollars / euros of debt.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[dustywoodworker]

I' am a Senior Oracle Consultant and I struggle to fill vacancies. It's not the lack of candidates but we are always looking for people with specific skills / modules which makes it increasingly difficult to put excellent all-rounders in front of a client because as soon as they see the consultant profile they throw it back.

IT will always be an area with vacancies because the tech moves so fast, and it takes a special kind of person to commit to national / international travel, and even the holy grail of ' Working From Home ' really is only for the few.

I have been out of the job market for several (many) years now so I don't really have a current understanding of the market place. However, it seemed to me that that phenomena was already occurring before I retired. The work force has been complacent and has not kept abreast of technological development. As a result, that US work force is ill prepared to compete on a global scale with those countries who have been training a technological work force. The movement to off shore manufacturing was inevitable. Moving it back will be nearly impossible.

On a very small scale, you can see why if you simply look at the curriculum of todays' high school students. Where has math and science gone? Where have the industrial arts gone?

 

[smsff7]

I hope at least one of those jobs is still around when I graduate in a year or two.

I hope so as well. I am about 2-3 years off myself.