June 26, 2008 10:11 AM

The need for domestic IT
Posted by Jesse Nunesat 10:11 AM

When talking about the trend of outsourcing jobs in America to other countries (also known as offshoring), one of the first industries that usually seems to come up is IT (information technology, for those of you with an aversion to widely known acronyms).

Because of this trend, it would seem logical then that domestic IT jobs would become more scarce as more companies send IT work overseas.

But is that really the case?

A few recent reports show that demand for IT positions in the near future will continue to grow at a fast rate, making domestic IT work an in-demand industry. In fact, there seems to actually be a shortage of qualified IT workers in the US right now. The AP reports:

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 854,000 professional IT jobs will be added between 2006 and 2016, an increase of about 24 percent. When replacement jobs are added in, total IT job openings in the 10-year period is estimated at 1.6 million.

The bureau estimates that one in 19 new jobs created in the 10-year period will be professional IT positions.

"The fact remains that technology permeates all businesses now," said Lou Gellos, a spokesman for Microsoft Corp. "All companies have that person down the hall to help with computer issues."

Amid the growing demand, the number of students entering computer sciences and computer engineering fields at major universities is dropping.

So, there will be a marked increase in the number of available IT jobs in the next 8 years, with a lot less people coming into the field from US universities. Seems like it will be a good time to be an experienced IT worker in the near future.

A report by Boston-based staffing firm Veritude enforces that. Their survey of HR and IT professionals shows that skilled IT workers in the US will indeed be in demand.

Among the human resources and IT professionals surveyed, more than half (53 percent) expect to increase the number of information technology staffers in 2008, while 43 percent anticipate their IT staffing will hold steady. In addition, very few respondents – only 4 percent – expect their IT staffing requirements to decrease. The research also reveals that among the expected new hires, 77 percent are "permanent" positions, indicating future stable, long-term growth of IT departments.

"Despite recent economic woes across many industries, we are finding that IT jobs are still in high demand with employers continuing to forecast steady growth of IT staffing levels," said Kate Donovan, senior vice president, Veritude. "Many earlier advances in IT were in automating tasks and basic programming. Now employers need on-site IT professionals who can contribute at a strategic level in using IT to achieve and sustain competitive advantages."

Of course, the keyword to all this is "skilled." The Veritude survey shows that companies will have a hard time finding "qualified" IT workers, and workers with specialized skill sets. And with less students honing their specializations in college, where will these workers come from?