After working through the decades, the Boom that thrust the country into a post-World War era is starting to kick back and relax. While the r&r is certainly deserved, the mass exodus of Baby Boomers in the American workforce is leaving some industries, including IT, with an ever-increasing talent gap.
There are two major factors contributing to the shift in the IT workforce demographic. Yes, Baby Boomers are rapidly reaching the age where daily journeys to the office and excursions to conferences are being replaced by golfing and snowbird travels. But as the Boomer workforce shrinks, the Millennial workforce is only getting larger. According to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015, the Millennial generation (born from 1982 to 2000) eclipsed the Baby Boomer generation (born from 1946 to 1964) by nearly 10 million people — 83.1 million vs. 75.4 million.
This incredible generational sea change is rapidly causing a gap in trained workers. With 10,000 Boomers reaching retirement age every single day, the need for efficient and reliable means of training and workforce preparation shouldn’t be understated. In the annual CIO Survey by Harvey Nash and KPMG, 65% of CIOs pointed to difficulties in hiring as a reason why the IT industry isn’t thriving as much as it could be.
It’s not a lack of jobs that is holding the hiring process back, however. By the year 2020, there are expected to be nearly 1.5 million IT positions open for hire. That’s an exciting growth prospect, but projections show that barely 30% of college graduates will be qualified for the openings. Even today, IT positions rank second only to skilled trades in terms of global talent shortage. All of these elements combine to form a clear picture of the very real talent gap in the IT industry — experienced workers leave, fewer experienced workers enter.
What this means, then, is that more and more companies will be fighting to recruit employees from a smaller pool of exceptionally qualified candidates. And when push comes to shove, falling back on the old hiring and training tricks of yesteryear may cause a company to fall behind.
One way of adapting to this evolution of the IT workforce is to explore new hiring methods. With direct access to a pool of trained and educated students from more than 100 colleges and universities across the United States, Maverick Software Consulting serves as an efficient and contemporary means of sourcing new talent. Instead of sifting through countless possible employees with only a small handful having the experience and skills needed for the job, Maverick’s talent pool provides easy access to top prospects. With such depth and ease, any company is just a simple search and scheduled interview from strengthening their roster of IT professionals.
The talent gap in the IT realm is a very real concern for the future of the industry and companies will have to work even harder to secure top prospects in order to continue to achieve success. New methods of exploring that top talent will undoubtedly assist in filling roles, even as Boomers continue gearing up for relaxing days on the golf course.
