Photo Source: Denver Business Journal
Last year, Denver was ranked among the top five cities emerging as best tech centers in the United States. The rankings were determined by JLL Technology Office, which is a firm specializing in commercial real estate services and investment management. Through JLL’s examination, Denver was ranked as a place where real estate and talent costs are relatively affordable, but rising, and has all of the elements in place to increase startup and tech company growth.
Now as we head into the new year, many Denver tech CIOs are planning to fill and add new tech jobs for 2016. According to an article in the Denver Business Journal, “Nearly a quarter of Denver-area technology executives plan to add new positions in the first half of 2016, a jump from the number planning to hire a year ago.”
A national survey conducted by Robert Half Technology found 23 percent of Denver-area tech leaders plan to expand their staff, while 65 percent plan to hire to fill existing jobs over the next six months. According to the Denver Business Journal article, the jobs most in demand by local tech leaders are network administrators, Windows administrators and desktop support.
In a previous blog, Twentyseven Global discussed the shortage of qualified workers in many industries in Denver. This is in spite of Denver having one of the strongest and fastest-growing economies, as well as one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. According to the 2014 report, Colorado’s Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs, middle-skill jobs that require education beyond a high-school diploma, but not a four-year college degree, account for 47 percent of jobs in Colorado. However, only 36 percent of Colorado’s workforce has the educational credentials to fill these positions. This gap, called the “workforce gap,” poses a risk of worker shortages in crucial industries like healthcare and software information technology.
Looking further into 2016, Colorado businesses need to update their talent recruitment efforts to tap into more potential talent pools in order to fill current positions and newly created, expanded positions within tech in the Denver area.
Custom software development company, Twentyseven Global, weighs in on the workforce gap in Colorado. Creighton O’Neal, vice president of client services for Twentyseven Global, says, “Twentyseven Global is uniquely positioned to help fill the software development workforce gap in Colorado with access to skilled workers in high demand software technologies.”
To read the full Denver Business Journal article, click here.
