| April 2006 |
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Sometimes a little too much bureaucracy can be a good thing. And these days that is especially true if you’re a skilled IT worker looking for a job in and around the District of Columbia.
That is because the technology job market has bloomed in the D.C. metro area over the past few years, thanks in large part to a plethora of government spending and hiring.
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While many companies have cut costs in recent years by shipping IT work overseas, most government contracts have restrictive clauses which call for projects to be performed by U.S.-based firms.
Recent initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense following Sept. 11 have upped the demand for IT workers in the region, according to a report conducted by AeA, the nation’s largest trade association for the high-tech industry.
“The District of Columbia weathered the recent economic downturn quite well, in part because it is home to the federal government,” said Gregory Poersch, executive director of the AeA Potomac Council.
In fact the job market in Washington is so tight, job seekers often receive signing bonuses and top dollar for their tech skills. Now, the problem in the metro area is no longer a scarcity of jobs but rather a shortage of qualified IT candidates available to fill growing staffing needs.
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| “As federal government contracts flourish, the need for tech professionals grows too.” |
| - Scot Melland, CEO of Dice |
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“This is the toughest region we do business in,” said Jeff Karnes, vice president of Cogent Communications. “We have a hard time finding qualified people.”
Karnes says his sales department alone expects to increase from 100 to 140 in the D.C. metro area by the end of the year. He credits Cogent’s continued growth on a combination of government initiatives spurring new business and a maturing IT economy.
D.C. ranks first in the country in research and development expenditures per capita and 18th in the number of people employed by the R&D and testing labs industry, according to AeA.
Tech professionals in the D.C. area reported earning an average salary of $77,900 in 2005, according to a survey by Dice, the leading technology career site. The hefty average salary ranked the city third among all major metro areas on Dice’s national salary list. The most sought-after IT skills right now, according to Dice, include Oracle, SAP and Java.
And all those factors have resulted in a very tight job market.
“The search for IT talent is probably more pronounced in D.C. than almost any other region of the country,” said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. “As federal government contracts flourish, the need for tech professionals grows too.”
If you would like to be interviewed for the next Dice market report, or if you have comments about this article, please contact us at feedback@dice.com.
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| "D.C. weathered the recent economic downturn quite well" |
| - Gregory Poersch, executive director of the AEA Potomac Council |
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