| January 2007 |
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| The region needs a kick start, and technology is being asked to lead the way |
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| The New England Economic Partnership, which keeps track of economic growth in all six New England states, hasn't been saying nice things about Rhode Island recently. In fact, it anticipates "turbulent times ahead" for the Rhode Island economy, with employment growing by 0.4% or 2,000 jobs in 2007. “Rhode Island has serious economic problems including losing businesses as a result of consolidations and acquisitions, an unemployment rate higher than the national rate, noncompetitive tax rates, decline of jobs in manufacturing, relying on too few sectors for generating tax revenues and slow growth in most employment sectors," said the report.
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So...what's a job seeker to do? One strategy: look for places that have scored R&D money, which is what the Rhode Island Economic Development Council does, pointing out that Rhode Island has over $1.7 billion of R&D performed by industry, universities, and federal labs. If that's not panning out, then look for the industries that do seem to be showing energy. Natasha Anderson, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, said, "We are seeing most of our openings within the financial and retail sectors. Most of the positions seem to be a result of new projects in the areas of enterprise application development."
Asked which job titles are most in demand, Anderson said, "The roles most frequently asked for are project managers, business analyst, and programmer analysts within both the .NET and J2EE spaces. While there is a need for candidates on these new projects, there are still demands for supporting the older legacy systems as well. We are also seeing an influx of requirements geared to specific ERP applications such as SAP."
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| "The market right now is experiencing tremendous demand for the top echelon of candidates" |
| - Natasha Anderson, branch manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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Providence-area employers expect to hire at a sluggish pace across all industries during the first quarter of 2007, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey which shows that only 10% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees. However, Anderson is more optimistic about the IT sector specifically. "We are definitely seeing a higher supply of job openings than the amount of available and qualified candidates able to fill these spots. Because of this, companies are finding it necessary to become more flexible with their once rigid requirements,” explained Anderson. “We are often times finding them willing to open doors to candidates with strong potential but perhaps without all the right buzzwords on their resume. The market right now is experiencing tremendous demand for the top echelon of candidates."
But everyone else may be struggling at the moment. At Dice, job listings for Providence tumbled in the fourth quarter after a decent first half of 2006. "From our perspective, Providence looks soft right now," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. "Job seekers will require patience as 2007 gets going."
What else can Providence do? According to Anderson, "From what I can see, there is a fair amount of effort in the community to encourage general business and tech company growth in the region. In May 2006, Mayor Cicilline and the City Council announced the creation of Providence Tomorrow, a new planning initiative designed to help orchestrate and plan the best possible growth solutions for the city. And over the past few years, over $2 billion of private investment has been invested in the region."
To learn more about what's going on, job seekers should check out organizations like Economic Development Corporation and Every Company Counts, which provide links to Rhode Island’s government and not-for-profit business service resources.
Job seekers should also keep their personal connections in mind. "It's still a 'who do you know' business," said one senior project manager at a managed security services company based in Providence. "Networking is still the best way to find out about and get jobs. I like LinkedIn, because you can usually find 'somebody who knows somebody' through a few degrees of separation. I've used grad school, college, and high school alumni directories. They contain a vast supply of potential contacts who are almost always eager to help." In tight times, casting a very wide net sounds like excellent advice.
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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