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National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: High Tech and Sciences
Chapter 1: Introduction
High Tech and
Sciences
Since 1990, the number of workers employed as computer systems analysts, computer engineers, and computer scientists in the United States has tripled. Today there are nearly 1.6 million such workers, in addition to nearly 700,000 computer programmers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that there will be approximately 2 million job openings for computer engineers, scientists, analysts, and programmers between 1998 and 2008. Three-quarters of this demand will be for workers with a bachelor's degree or more.
Meeting the labor demands of the diverse employment markets in the information technology (IT) industry is particularly challenging. The variety and complexity of software and hardware products and their applications paired with the business requirements of each industry frequently creates "spot" demand for workers with unique combinations of IT skills, experience, and industry knowledge-expressed often by employers as needing the right person, with the right skill, at the right time.
In the face of this skills shortage, high tech businesses are discovering that one of the best investments they can make is in their own employees. The practices that follow confirm that training can create a productive, loyal, and, most important, highly-skilled high-tech.
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