IT Unemployment Rate Half the National Average

The unemployment rate among information technology (IT) professionals remains at about half of the national average at 4.4% in the first quarter of 2012 — and that’s no surprise given the strong demand. Hiring managers are even facing stiff competition in securing some key types of IT skills.

According to this month’s issue of the Dice Report, the most difficult employees to find, hire and retain among the current pool of IT pros are Java developers, mobile developers, .NET developers and software developers. In fact, hiring managers cited those positions about double or triple the frequency of other skill sets in the employment marketplace, Dice found.

Rounding out the top 10 list of most difficult skill sets to find were security, SAP, SharePoint, web developer, active federal security clearance and network engineers.

Technology hiring managers also are not looking for new, young IT graduates straight from college, either. According to the survey, hiring managers are most looking for IT pros with two to five years in the workforce, followed by those with six to 10 years of experience.

Most organizations are no longer training their IT professionals, with most saying they leave the responsibility for training to the individual employee. “Hiring managers say they expect tech professionals to stay with their firm about three years,” Dice notes. “That makes it tough to cross-train, retrain or train at all.”

Source : mashable.com