Staggering Few Americans Pursuing Careers in Tech

Written by Market Street Talent | April 5, 2015

Market Street Talent was excited to see folks reading and commenting on our blog posting last week! The idea of the current talent shortage – especially in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is a HUGE issue and we’ve just started to scratch the surface.

We’ve been talking a lot in the office and brainstorming about ‘why’ there is such a significant talent gap in IT but let’s start here with the crux of the issue – There simply are not enough technologists in the U.S. today, and if we stay the course, there will not be enough technologists in the future.

As IT recruiters for the greater Boston area, we partner with many technologists who work in the Boston ‘tech hub’ but commute and live in states outside of Massachusetts including many from NH.  So just to drive home the point of our tremendous talent gap and our concern for the future, we’ll use NH as an example of what we see as a broader issue in the U.S.

Here in NH,  The University of New Hampshire is perhaps the most  influential educator of computer scientists within the state.  That said, their recent graduating class of computer science grads was just shy of 40 total students.  To add perspective, there are over 3000 IT jobs rumored to be available today, just within NH.  Looking forward, consider a modest population growth of new talent (graduating computer scientists) and the large impending retirement of many baby boomers (existing talent) and you have a mind boggling disconnect;  literally thousands of jobs right here in our own backyard that simply cannot be filled because of the lack of skilled talent.

It is estimated that by 2020 there will be one million more tech jobs than students which translates to a $500 Billion opportunity simply not being served.  $500 Billion with a ‘B’!  Again, this issue is bigger than we can imagine and if we had the answers we would be worth a pretty penny ($500 Billion perhaps!)…

So what are we going to do about it?   And WHY aren’t more American’s jumping on thegravy train computer science career path when there are so many job opportunities?  We’ve come up with some ideas and theories and we’ll offer more on that next week…but we’d love to hear from you.  Why do you think there are so few American’s pursuing careers in technology?  What role do you think each of us plays in expanding the tech talent pool for the future?