IT Hiring Challenges Keep Piling Up

The folks in the HR business are good at keeping tabs on movement within the tech job market, and there are some recent data points you don’t want to miss: There’s a healthy number of IT pros who plan to seek new jobs (and many don’t want anything to do with your company); millennials are apt to strike out on their own; and the over-40 crowd is being dismissed. 

In Spiceworks’ 2018 IT Career Outlook report, the firm found that one-third of IT pros plan on job-hopping. Twenty-six percent of survey takers reported that they’ll begin looking for a job with a new employer, while another 18 percent plan to start or take an IT job with a new employer. That’s not all — another 5 percent plan to become consultants or move to an IT service provider. 

The good news/bad news rap: Seventy percent of IT pros report job satisfaction – and that’s across generations – however, nearly two in three (63 percent) say they’re underpaid. 

Dice Insights, published by tech career website Dice, recently posted two interesting trends: There’s going to be a spike in self-employment over the next 24 months, and there are a lot of tech employers who don’t welcome IT pros over 40. 

Citing a recent Self Employment Report from Freshbooks, an accounting software firm, Dice Insight reported that the number of self-employed professionals could triple to 42 million by 2020. The charge will be led by millennials. A few other insights about this upcoming independent workforce: It will be more ethnically diverse than the existing contingent of self-employed professionals — for example, more African American, Asian, and Hispanic workers; and newcomers to the self-employment sector will be better educated sporting more bachelor’s and master’s degrees. At the same time, the number of self-employed professionals with no college experience will fall, the report stated. 

Autonomy, freedom and control are what’s motivating the self-employment crowd. 

While the Freshbooks report data isn’t specific to the tech industry, the Dice Insight note reports that Dice Salary Survey data supports these freelancers’ impulses. Consultants make over $20,000 more per year than full-time tech pros, on average, and the base rate for consultants has risen 4.7 percent, to $72.32 per hour. Dice also found that IT pros interested in self-employment – in addition to higher compensation – cite better working conditions, more responsibility, fear of losing their job, and a short commute as motivators. 

With talent at a premium in the tech industry, you’ve got to scratch your head as to why any employers shun workers over 40 years old. Again, Dice Insights brings the issue to the foreground, expanding on how ageism is alive and well. The article also provides advice on how to align with unbiased companies.