It is clear that technology has become a critical part of our daily lives, both personally and professionally. Due to the recent global health crisis, remote work has tested our digital world and we are now learning just what needs to be done for the next technological revolution.
It is also very obvious that the need for tech talent will continue to grow. As more and more of our world moves online, companies are going to need specialists to update and maintain their IT infrastructure.
An extensive survey has been recently carried out on the future of IT hiring within large companies in NYC. Their research was carried out on 400 companies that had a revenue of at least $1 billion. The overall feeling is optimistic regarding hiring. 85% of the companies in the survey are planning to hire tech talent in 2020. Moreover, a large number of the 85% intend to increase tech hires by over 20%.
The outlook begins to cloud when considering the tech talent available locally. 87% of companies feel strongly that they can hire the talent they need in New York City. That being said, almost 25% have reported challenges when trying to recruit candidates with experience. 68% of the companies that participated in the research have more tech positions to fill this year than in any other year. When companies do look further afield, Boston, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley are the preferred locations.
Which Technical Areas Are in High Demand?
There are so many different areas that IT comprises of, New York certainly has a variety of positions to fill. However, there are three main areas where companies are particularly looking for talent.
- Cybersecurity- 63% of companies are looking to hire cybersecurity experts. 55% believe that NYC has the best cybersecurity talent compared with other cities.
- Cloud- Not surprisingly considering the recent growth of cloud-based solutions, 52% of companies want to fill cloud roles.
- Web Engineering- 50% of the respondents would like to hire more web engineers in 2020. 44% of those asked felt that New York City had the best web engineers.
How Can New York Attract More Tech Talent?
New York City is certainly not the only city in the world to face a tech talent shortage. But with such high hopes for increasing tech hires, what did the companies feel could be done to attract more talent to the area?
A lot will come down to the support of local governments and organizations in the city. 50% of companies believed that to aid people in securing tech jobs, apprenticeship programs would help. Very closely behind with 49%, education programs in K-12 education would play a key part in filling tech jobs in the future. Finally, 46% of those asked felt that if new policies were created, companies would find it easier to hire and tech talent will be more attracted to the roles that need filling.
In Conclusion
New York City is the city where dreams are made. Just the name alone is enough to appeal to many. It’s a bustling city with great diversity. It’s this diversity that pushes the city to be more innovative in both industries and academic institutions. This will help attract more talent in the future. The more tech talent the city can draw the more competition there will be between talent. When you combine innovation and competition, New York City may well be able to reach their tech talent-hiring goals.
