Monday Morning Impact – April 22
CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce Report Forecasts 300,000 New Positions
U.S. technology employment gains may return to growth this year, according to a report by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based industry association.
CompTIA’s “State of the Tech Workforce 2024” forecasts net tech employment spanning the aggregate tech sector and tech occupation workforces reaching 9.9 million workers this year, an increase of more than 300,000 net new workers. This represents a projected year-over-year gain of 3.1%, reversing the modest increase of 1.2% during 2023.
The report says the economic impact of tech will also continue to expand, building on a base of an estimated $2 trillion in annual direct economic impact and more than 650,000 technology companies contributing to the U.S. economy. Tech sectors in 30 states generate $10 billion or more in direct economic impact, according to the report.
“After periods of overperformance and underperformance, the overarching tech story remains positive,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer, CompTIA. “Ensuring a thriving, globally competitive workforce means further committing to developing the country’s base of tech and digital talent through time-tested and alternative pathways.”
Positions in the data science and data analyst category, cybersecurity category, software development category, UI/UX category and emerging tech category including artificial intelligence will grow at the fastest rates on a percentage basis, according to the report. On a volume basis, core infrastructure positions in networking and cloud engineering, along with tech support positions, will continue to serve as the on ramp for many starting a career in technology.
In a separate announcement, CompTIA released its analysis of last month’s report from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employers accelerated their hiring of technology workers and expanded their search for new tech talent in March, according to CompTIA’s analysis, which says technology companies added an estimated 6,000 workers in March. Job growth was led by new hiring in technology services, software development, cloud infrastructure and related positions. Technology occupations throughout the economy increased by 203,000 for the month, thereby pushing the unemployment rate for tech occupations back down to 3%.
Channel Impact®
The research provides some encouraging news in the industry which has had a trend towards layoffs across multiple quarters.
Ivanti: Most IT and Security Professionals Have Limited Options for Flexible Work
Ivanti has rolled out its “2024 Everywhere Work report,” suggesting that a vast majority of surveyed professionals seek the option to work from anywhere, but far fewer are granted employer permission to do so.
According to the research, the vast majority of professionals (80%) say flexible work is highly valuable compared to the ability to work anywhere (70%). Yet just 25% of professionals say their jobs afford them high flexibility, and at least 40% would change jobs to gain flexibility.
Women prioritize flexibility more than their male counterparts: 36% of women consider flexible work essential compared to 22% of men. Additionally, 28% of women view being able to work anywhere as essential, compared to 18% of men. Organizations that take a more rigid approach may be undermining a critical segment of their workforce.
“Employers seeking to hire top talent should prioritize workplace flexibility, as it has a clear business advantage,” said Jeff Abbott, Ivanti CEO. “To effectively implement flexible work arrangements, it’s essential to provide employees with the necessary resources, support, and secure infrastructure to ensure their success. Neglecting these factors may lead to higher turnover rates and dissatisfaction among valuable employees you are trying to keep engaged.”
Although more than 90% of surveyed leaders say employees have the tools to be productive in a remote or hybrid work environment, that’s not the case for IT and Security teams. Just 46% say it’s easy to access tech tools when working remotely. This disconnect has weighty implications for employers — nearly one in four IT professionals (23%) say a colleague has resigned due to burnout.
The majority (76%) say AI and automation can help decrease ticket volume and provide better service. However, research from the Salt Lake City-based company shows adoption rates for AI and automation solutions are low, presumably due to AI’s inability to deliver useful insights based on inaccurate data as long-standing data silos prevent organizations from deploying AI and automation at scale.
Ivanti surveyed more than 7,700 executive leaders, IT, and cybersecurity professionals and office workers in January.
Channel Impact®
In order to successfully enable remote work, partners should help their customers prioritize flexibility as a means of attracting and retaining top talent.
Cloud Software Group and Microsoft Sign Cloud/GenAI Partnership
Cloud Software Group, and Microsoft announced an eight-year strategic partnership intended to strengthen the go-to-market collaboration for the Citrix virtual application and desktop platform and support the development of new cloud and AI solutions with an integrated product roadmap. Additionally, Cloud Software Group will make a $1.65 billion commitment to the Microsoft cloud and its generative AI capabilities.
Under the partnership, Citrix is the preferred Microsoft Global Azure Partner solution for Enterprise Desktop as a Service when collaborating with joint Azure customers. The companies will jointly offer tailored solutions and support in an effort to accelerate customers’ cloud journeys. Additionally, Citrix will leverage Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud solution.
“As organizations embrace flexible work models, the need to empower employees with secure, innovative solutions for enhanced productivity becomes imperative,” said Sridhar Mullapudi, General Manager at Citrix. “The partnership between Citrix and Microsoft epitomizes the ‘Better Together’ relationship, combining both companies’ strengths to deliver unmatched value and innovation to our customers.”
“The simplification of our new Universal and Cloud Platform licensing, which brings together all of our capabilities, including NetScaler, will make our joint solutions with Microsoft much easier for customers to consume and deploy,” said Hector Lima, Chief Revenue Officer at Citrix.
In addition, Cloud Software Group’s engineering organizations are deploying GitHub Copilot to all their engineers with the goal of increasing developer productivity. Also, Spotfire, a Cloud Software Group business unit, recently announced a new Spotfire Copilot extension built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI service.
Channel Impact®
The two companies and their partners intend to bring joint cloud solutions and Generative AI to a much higher volume of customers.
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