Analysis of IT hiring shortfalls

August 11, 2005

To some people that could be on the pessimistic side of things, their general view of the global IT workforce is that there simply isn't enough qualified IT personnel to do the job properly. However, many disagree with that view.

And, there's another analysis of the IT hiring shortfall phenomenon as exemplified by Google, the company that recently said it was unable to find enough workers with the right skills to fuel growth. The analysis comes from a Line 56 reader who has the following to say: "I think the real truth is not that there's a shortage of skilled IT workers. The real truth is that there's a shortage of skilled IT workers who can work for what these executives want to pay."

Here's what the reader had to say about Google in particular [the order of some sentences has been edited, along with some very minor edits of spelling and grammar]:

"Nobody in their right mind would choose to move to Mountain View, CA, and take the economic loss of a job there. Most of the positions Google is hiring for are jobs that could be performed thousands of miles away from Mountain View, CA...yet they want their employees where they can physically see them."

The reader offered the following discussion of conditions in Google's neighborhood.

"There's no possible way I would break even moving to Mountain View even though I am qualified for many of the jobs Google is looking for people for....If Google tripled the salary they were offering then it might work economically for us."

Here, the reader has really tapped into the economic logic behind offshore (and onshore) outsourcing: "...you can only fit so many warm bodies into a particular geographic area.

Once you exceed a comfortable carrying capacity, housing prices skyrocket, and you get lopsided disparities in the work force."

The conclusion is that skills shortages based on domestic hiring would simply evaporate if companies either A)paid higher salaries, creating incentive or B)allowed workers to telecommute. Point B is crucial, because there is no reason that the majority of information workers cannot work from home.

"Companies are going to have to become much less tied to geography and much more willing to adopt a spiderweb structure if they want to be able to afford to not only pay for existing talent, but put money into the educational system to grow new talent."

The last point is particularly interesting, as it suggests that companies have some responsibility to create adequately skilled workers of the future. Henry Ford did it; so, our reader says, can Google and the other companies of today.

Source: Line 56