Roughly 60 percent of companies plan on boosting their technologist headcount in the coming year, according to the new 2021 Harvey Nash Group Digital Leadership Report.
That’s good news for technologists on the hunt for a new position. Not only will roles open up, but pressure to fill those roles could translate into increased leverage when it comes to negotiating compensation, benefits, and perks. The Harvey Nash Report (done in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology CISR and CIONET) arrives just as the tech unemployment rate hits 2.1 percent, according to a CompTIA analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
The Harvey Nash Report also mentions how cybersecurity, DevOps, and data analytics are three tech areas with the potential for the most acute skills shortages. That could force hiring managers and recruiters to cast a far wider net when it comes to recruiting technologists, particularly if the jobs in question are remote (and can thus be done from anywhere). For technologists, knowing cybersecurity, DevOps, and analytics skills will increase your hiring potential drastically, especially if you’re adept at something highly specialized such as artificial intelligence (A.I.).
In the context of cybersecurity, the need for talent has drawn the attention of the White House and mega-corporations such as Microsoft, which are pouring lots of resources into education and training. IBM, Google, and Microsoft have pledged to collectively educate hundreds of thousands of students in cybersecurity skills over the next few years. An estimate by Cyber Seek, a job-tracking database developed by the Department of Commerce and CompTIA, estimates there are 465,000 open cyber positions nationwide, including 36,000 across federal, state and local government agencies—meaning that, despite this newfound focus on education, the talent shortages could persist for quite some time.
In a bid to attract technologists, companies are deploying new kinds of benefits, from pet insurance to flexible schedules and unlimited PTO. If you’re interested in remote or hybrid employment, more employers are also cycling up benefits designed to facilitate working from your home office, including (but certainly not limited to) subsidies for desks and equipment. If you’re on the hunt for a new role, keep all of that in mind—the pressure to find technologists could lead employers to make one-of-a-kind offers.
