| April 2007 |
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| High-tech retrenchment is going slowly, with financial services the strongest sector |
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| In March, The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Providence as one of its annual Dozen Distinctive Destinations, saying the city has been reinvented through preservation-based revitalization and heritage tourism. So while it's clear that Providence is good at looking back, can it also look forward to a tech-centric future that provides good IT jobs?
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It hasn't been easy. Positioned between the more bustling tech hubs of New York and Boston, and lacking a massive service sector such as nearby Hartford's insurance industry, Providence has struggled to find its place in the digital world of the Northeast. Sovereign Bank's 2007 Economic Outlook Survey, which was conducted with the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, found that aging demographics, high taxes, and healthcare costs all hurt the city and the state as it tries to grow, and that one great solution would be to make the state much more tech-friendly.
To that end, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council has made a number of recommendations, including a request for more money to complete a border-to-border broadband wireless network and the creation of a new IT and Digital Media Center.
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| What are employers looking for? "Project managers, business analysts and programmer analysts" |
| - Natasha Anderson, branch manager Sapphire Technologies |
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While the state waits for such projects to take flight, the more immediate future is actually looking pretty good for IT workers. Natasha Anderson, branch manager
for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, says, "We are seeing a rise in both contract, contract to permanent, and permanent positions. For the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area during the first 12 weeks of 2007, we had a total of 448 job listings come in, which represents a 73% increase over the same period last year." (Chances are, however, that much of that activity is actually on the Massachusetts side of the border.) What are employers looking for? "Project managers, business analysts and programmer analysts," says Anderson. "I have also seen a large increase in support positions, from entry-level help desk roles to senior systems administrators and security architects."
Although the total number of job listings at Dice did rise 4% for the quarter, it's still down 48% from an August 2006 peak. Clearly, much improvement is still needed.
And in response to reports that enrollment in computer science courses at Rhode Island universities has plummeted (perhaps because of the dot-com bust and so much talk of outsourcing), local tech leaders are calling for a reality check. “We have to make people aware that there are viable careers available,” Tim Hebert, chairman of the Tech Collective and CEO of Atrion Networking Corp. in Warwick, told The Providence Business News in March. "We have companies going to classes to recruit because there are so few students. And this is turning up in the pay rates. Most of the graduates are starting in the mid-$50,000s without experience. I am quite dumbfounded as to why students aren’t coming.”
Perhaps it's a case of mixed signals, with optimistic boosters and recruiters clashing with less encouraging statistics. The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, for example, finds that the overall Providence employment outlook is one of the weakest in the nation. From April to June, 13% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 23% expect to reduce their payrolls, according to Manpower spokesperson Scott Shelley.
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