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10 Best Cities to Recruit Cyber Security Professionals

By Abby Lombardi on February 13, 2013 in Computer/Math/IT.

Public and private organizations are expanding their cyber security workforce. The Pentagon recently announced they will add 4,000 new cyber security jobs to their existing staff of about 900, growing by more than 340%. Hundreds of private organizations have also announced similar plans to increase their workforce over the next year. If you are recruiting for cyber security professionals, you are likely finding these jobs hard-to-fill and experiencing significant competition to attract talent. Unfortunately, it's not likely to get any easier as more and more organizations look to hire from this limited talent pool. To give you a competitive advantage and to help you fill jobs faster, we wanted to provide you with the 10 cities that are currently experiencing the best conditions for sourcing this talent.

Difficulty-to-Fill for Cyber Security Jobs in the United States

Hiring Scale for Cyber Security Professionals in the United States

Source: WANTED Analytics

Above is a map of major metropolitan areas and Hiring Scales, which depict the estimated difficulty-to-fill for cyber security jobs. On average, our cyber security jobs score a 76 on our Hiring Scale, out of a possible 99 where 99 would represent the hardest-to-fill. Also, we are able to see that the average posting period of a cyber security job ad is 6 weeks. This doesn't necessarily mean that jobs take 6 weeks to fill, simply that job ads for this talent stay online for this amount of time. Positions may take longer than this to fill depending on interview and offer processes.

The 10 cities with the best average recruiting conditions are:

  1. Toledo, OH
  2. Tucson, AZ
  3. Killeen-Fort Hood, TX
  4. Duluth, MN
  5. Syracuse, NY
  6. Springfield, MA
  7. Reno, NV
  8. Riverside-San Bernardino, CA
  9. Birmingham, AL
  10. Orlando, FL

In the above 10 cities, there are only a few job ads posted online. Yet, there are enough potential candidates working in cyber security to support the local hiring demand without feeling unnecessary strains. In addition, the average posting period is even with or less than the national average. However, conditions still range significantly in these cities. For example, the Hiring Scale in Toledo is a 17. This city is currently experiencing the best conditions in the US. However, the city ranked in the 10th spot, Orlando, has a Hiring Scale score of 57. Although it's much higher than Toledo, it's still better than the national average.

Hiring Scale for Cyber Security Professionals in Orlando, FL

Hiring Scale for Cyber Security Professionals in Orlando, FL

Source: WANTED Analytics

By sourcing potential candidates in the above 10 cities, you may be able to fill jobs faster due to less competition and having more candidates to source from. If relocating a new employee isn't an option for your company, look to surrounding cities where you might be able to find talent easier. For example, Washington, DC is likely to see growing difficulties. But, cities like Harrisburg and Philadelphia (PA) and Newport (VA) may be options for Recruiters. These 3 cities have Hiring Scale scores lower than the national average and may be close enough to find potential candidates.

Is your company hiring for cyber security professionals? Get a free trial of WANTED Analytics to see what local hiring conditions look like.

Already an Analytics user? Log in, enter your occupation, location, enter "cyber security" in the keyword filter and add any other requirements (location, skills, certifications, occupations, etc).

Most Commonly Required Tech Certifications

By Abby Lombardi on July 1, 2012 in Computer/Math/IT.

Technology skills are in-demand and we've often shared some of the most commonly required skills in job ads. Today, we thought we'd look at the certifications that are most commonly specified in job ads for IT professionals. Web services certifications are most commonly required in job ads – more than 21,000 ads currently require this.

  1. Web Services certification
  2. Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI)
  3. Project Management Professional (PMP)
  4. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
  5. Cisco Network Associate (CCNA)
  6. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
  7. Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
  8. Project Management Institute (PMI)
  9. Business Process Management Programming Language (BPM)
  10. Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
  11. Cisco CCIE Voice
  12. Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)
  13. Certified Scrum Coach (CSC)
  14. Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
  15. Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

Do you source candidates with these certifications? What other certifications do you commonly require of potential candidates?

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IT Projects Grow and Bring More Hiring for Project Managers

By Abby Lombardi on April 12, 2012 in Computer/Math/IT.

With the technology projects growing across the US, we thought we would look at hiring for IT Project Managers since these professionals are needed to keep projects on track. When we looked at the recent volume of job ads for this occupation, we were astonished by the continued growth over the past year In March, there were more than 18,000 job ads posted online – a 27% increase compared to March of 2011. Hiring for IT Project Managers has grown about 160% over the past 3 years – more than doubling in demand and remains at higher levels than before the recession.

Hiring Demand for IT Project Managers – 4 Year Hiring Trend

Hiring Demand for IT Project Managers

Source: WANTED Analytics

We saw the most job ads for openings located in the New York metro area, where more than 1,000 ads were posed online at a 12% year-over-year increase. Other metro areas with high demand for IT Project Managers were Washington (DC), San Francisco, Seattle, and Atlanta. The tools and technology that are most commonly required of potential candidates for these jobs are:

  1. Microsoft Project
  2. Microsoft Office (including PowerPoint, Word, Excel)
  3. Microsoft Office Visio
  4. Microsoft SharePoint
  5. Project management software
  6. Management information systems (MIS)
  7. Structured query language (SQL)
  8. Customer relationship management (CRM)
  9. Portfolio management
  10. Resource planning
  11. Oracle Java
  12. Agile Software Development
  13. Software development lifecycle
  14. UNIX
  15. Hypertext markup language (HTML)

The most demanded certifications for IT Project Managers are Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), and Six Sigma. Due to this increase in hiring for a relatively limited talent pool, our Hiring Scale™ shows that Recruiters will find these jobs very difficult-to-fill. For example, Recruiters in Washington, DC spend leave job ads online for an average of 44 days, or just over 6 weeks.

Hiring Scale for IT Project Managers in Washington, DC (Hard-to-Fill Location)

Hiring Scale for IT Project Managers in Washington, DC

Source: WANTED Analytics

However, the Hiring Scale also shows that the best markets to post job ads and recruit talent from are Salem (OR), Hagerstown (MD), and Ogden (UT). In these areas the average posting period is as short as 3 weeks – half the time it takes to fill in Washington, DC.

Hiring Scale for IT Project Managers in Salem, OR (Easy-to-Fill Location)

Hiring Scale for IT Project Managers in Salem, OR

Source: WANTED Analytics

Are you recruiting for an IT Project Manager? Find out how hard-to-fill these jobs will be in your area with the free, online Hiring Scale. Just tell us where and we'll show you a Hiring Scale, average salary information, and who you are competing with for talent!

Tech Hiring in the Silicon Valley vs. the Silicon Alley

By Abby Lombardi on February 22, 2012 in Computer/Math/IT.

We all know of the Silicon Valley, the San Jose and San Francisco area known for its large technology-focused community. Over the past years, the Silicon Alley – a nickname given to the emergence of technology, internet, and media companies in Manhattan, NY – has begun to rival California in technological developments and hiring. We thought it would be interesting to compare the hiring trends in these 2 areas and see which market is hiring more and which is likely to see more difficulty in filling these openings.

During January 2012, Recruiters in these 2 areas posted a combined 37,000 job ads for IT and tech positions. New York has consistently seen the higher demand, and during January saw about 20,000 new online job ads. In comparison, Recruiters in the Silicon Valley placed just over 16,000 job ads for tech openings during January. While New York's Silicon Alley may have contributed more job ads, the Silicon Valley saw a greater year-over-year growth. Hiring for tech professionals in the Silicon Valley grew more than 12% between January 2011 and January 2012. However, the demand in New York grew just 6% during the same time period. In fact, over the past 4 years, hiring in New York declined about 1% compared to the Silicon Valley, which increased about 26% (versus January 2008.)

Hiring Demand for Tech Professionals in the Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley – 4 Year Hiring Trend

Hiring Demand for Tech Talent in the Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Alley

Source: WANTED Analytics

The 10 most demanded technology jobs in New York and the Silicon Valley are listed below. The positions are similar in the 2 areas, with the order and number of job posting varying by location. In New York, Web Developers are the most demanded positions although the volume of online job ads has declined about 3%. Software Engineers are most demanded in the Silicon Valley region and seeing a 23% growth compared to January 2011.

10 Occupations with Highest Demand in
the Silicon Alley
- January 2012 vs. 2011		 10 Occupations with Highest Demand in
the Silicon Valley
- January 2012 vs. 2011
top 10 tech occupations in NY

Source: WANTED Analytics
top 10 tech occupations in Silicon Valley

Source: WANTED Analytics

According to our Hiring Scale™, it's likely that Recruiters in both the Silicon Valley and the Silicon Alley will find tech jobs fairly hard-to-fill. But which will be more difficult? Surprisingly, the talent pool in the Silicon Valley is significantly smaller than that of New York, making recruiting more difficult on the West Coast. Although, the difference isn't much. In New York, job ads are posted online for an average of 38 days – or about 5.4 weeks. In the San Francisco and San Jose, ads are posted online for about 39 days – or about 5.5 weeks. The Hiring Scale also confirms that recruiting will be more difficult in the Silicon Valley.

Hiring Scale for Tech Talent in New York (the Silicon Alley)

Hiring Scale for Tech Talent in New York

Source: WANTED Analytics

Hiring Scale for Tech Talent in San Francisco and San Jose (the Silicon Valley)

Hiring Scale for Tech Talent in the Silicon Valley

Source: WANTED Analytics

Are you recruiting for open tech jobs? Try the free online Hiring Scale™ to find out if these jobs are easier to fill in your area, average salary information, and insight into who you are competing with for talent.

Hiring Demand for 10 Common Programming Languages and Skills

By Abby Lombardi on November 28, 2011 in Computer/Math/IT, Hiring Demand Indicators.

Just about every company is hiring (or has recently hired) for tech talent – it's been one of the most demanded fields in the United States for the past several years.  We took a look at hiring for 10 programming skills over the past 30 days to see what is most demanded.

The 10 programming skills we looked at are:

  • Java
  • Visual Basic (or VB.NET)
  • Javascript
  • Unix
  • Perl
  • Python
  • Delphi
  • Ruby (or Ruby on Rails)
  • Ajax
  • PHP

Over the past 30 days, there were more than 67,000 Computer and IT related job ads that included one or more of these skills in their job ads (either in the advertised job title or within the job description/required skills.) Combined, this represents a 5.9% growth in hiring demand compared to the same 30 day period in 2010. The top technology occupations that include these skill sets included Web Developers, Software Engineers, and Computer Systems Analysts.

Hiring Demand for Computer Programming Skills

Hiring Demand for Programmers

Source: WANTED Analytics

Below is a list of the volume of job ads and percent change versus the same 30-day period in 2010, listed in order of most job ads to least. Java was the most demanded occupation with more than 34,000 job ads over the past 30 days and seeing a 4.8% year-over-year growth. The highest year-over-year growth, however, was seen for Ruby (or Ruby on Rails) with more than a 35% increase versus last year. Unix and Visual Basic (or VB.NET) were the only 2 of these 10 programming skills that saw a decline in hiring demand.

Programming Skill Number of Job Ads Year-over-Year % Change
Java 34,941 +4.8%
Unix 23,575 -3.4%
Javascript 20,225 +17.7%
Perl 10,106 +2.0%
Ajax 9,571 +2.5%
PHP 7,744 +15.7%
Python 5,756 +24.8%
Ruby (or Ruby on Rails) 3,508 +35.8%
Visual Basic (or VB.NET) 2,989 -9.5%
Delphi 293 +4.3%

Are there other programming languages or skills you would like to see hiring demand for? Let us know in the comments section below or email us and we can look at hiring demand for those skills.

Tech talent can be difficult to recruit. Sing up for a free trial of WANTED Analytics and learn how to reduce time-to-fill and decrease cost-per-hire for any open job req.

Hiring Demand Grows for Software Engineers

By Abby Lombardi on October 20, 2011 in Computer/Math/IT.

Computer Application Software Engineers are a highly demanded tech job. At the time of writing, about 6,600 US employers are advertising more than 97,000 unique jobs online for this occupation – 26,000 of which have been  posted in just the past 30 days. Demand for this occupation during September grew more than 23% from the same month in 2010 and 78% compared to 2009. Since the talent pool for this occupation has not grown at the same pace as hiring demand, Recruiters are facing difficult conditions. The nationwide talent pool consists of about 4 potential candidates per job ad currently online, with many areas facing talent shortages. For example, the talent pools in Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose are smaller, consisting of about 2 potential candidates in the workforce per opening.

Hiring Scale for Software Engineers in Seattle, WA (Hard-to-Fill)

Hiring Scale for Software Engineers in Seattle, WA

Source: WANTED Analytics

Our Hiring Scale™ shows that the easiest places to recruit Software Engineers are Rochester (MN), La Crosse (WI), Lansing (MI), Wichita (KS), and Jackson (MS).  The talent pools in these locations consist of more than 34 potential candidates per job ad. Since demand is lower in comparison to the available candidate supply, these locations can be great sources of hidden talent pools. Recruiters that are able to source and fill positions in these locations are likely to reduce the time-to-fill and cost-per-hire for openings.

We also took a look at average salary ranges for this position in the locations with easy and difficult recruiting conditions. The highest salary range is in San Francisco (which has also seen some of the highest demand) while the lowest range is in La Crosse, WI.

Location Average Salary Range
National $91,800 – $106,000
Seattle, WA $93,600 – $100,000
San Francisco, CA $110,000 – $124,800
San Jose, CA $110,000 – $120,000
Rochester, MN $72,800 – $83,000
La Crosse, WI $57,200 – $75,000
Lansing, MI $75,000 – $90,000
Wichita, KS $73,000 – $95,000
Jackson, MS $80,000 – $90,000

What hard skills are most demanded for Applications Software Engineers? Below, we list some of the commonly required skills for this occupation, along with the number of jobs being advertised online.

  1. Java – 40,140 job ads
  2. SQL – 31,789 job ads
  3. .NET – 20196 job ads
  4. Linux – 19,988 job ads
  5. XML – 17,877 job ads
  6. Unix – 15,874 job ads
  7. Perl – 11,378 job ads
  8. CSS – 9,804 job ads
  9. ASP.NET – 7,930 job ads
  10. Ruby – 5,282 job ads

Are there any other software engineering or programming skills that you commonly recruit for?

Are you sourcing for Software Engineering job openings? Sign up for a free trial of Analytics™ to find ways to see how recruiting conditions compare in your area, see where hidden candidate pools may be located, and reduce your time-to-fill for any open position.

IT Hiring Demand Robust in October – Trending up 4.9% per Month (update)

By Charles Thibault on November 9, 2009 in Computer/Math/IT, Hiring Demand Indicators.

Hiring Demand for "Computer and Mathematical Occupations" grew by 6.5% in October on a seasonally unadjusted basis according to data from WANTED Analytics 2.0. This confirms the positive trend we saw begin in June, when Hiring Demand starting growing at an average monthly rate of 4.9%. This positive trend has affected most US metro areas.

WANTED Analytics tracks the number of online job ads on over 1,000 employment websites:

Source: WANTED Analytics

Source: WANTED Analytics

IT Hiring Demand grew faster than the rest of the economy – national Hiring Demand, all Occupations considered, grew by 4.0% over the same period. Removing the positive effect that IT workers had on the national average, national Hiring Demand grew by only 3.3%. (In other words, IT occupations contributed 0.7% to the overall growth in national Hiring Demand).

The table below details changes in Hiring Demand by occupation. Occupations are defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and their Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System. Five occupations saw increases in Hiring Demand, while three saw drops. Drops were concentrated in "Computer Software Engineers", both "Applications" and "Systems Software".

SOCSOC DescriptionPercent Change, OCT (NSA)
000000All Occupations4.0%
150000Computer and Mathematical Occupations6.5%
151071Network and Computer Systems Administrators9.5%
151021Computer Programmers9.1%
151061Database Administrators7.9%
151081Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts7.7%
151041Computer Support Specialists5.7%
151051Computer Systems Analysts-1.2%
151031Computer Software Engineers, Applications-5.9%
151032Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software-27.0%

What's more, IT Hiring Demand is growing faster now than it did during the "boom times" of 2006/2007. The following table and weekly time series chart, where the count of online job ads is taken as a natural log to facilitate trending analysis, clearly shows this:

PeriodMonthly Growth Rate
Oct.2006 – June 2008+1.2%
July 2008 – May 2009-6.5%
June 2009 – Current+4.9%

Read more »

IT Hiring Demand Improves 1.1%

By Charles Thibault on September 29, 2009 in Computer/Math/IT, Hiring Demand Indicators.

Hiring Demand for Computer and Mathematical Occupations has improved 1.1% over the past month, according to data from WANTED Analytics.

There are still 117,000 fewer online job ads for Computer and Mathematical workers compared to a year ago – a drop of 38.7%. However, a month ago, the year-over-year decline stood at 39.8%. This relative improvement of 1.1% is a simple way of controlling for seasonal fluctuations. Over the same period, National Hiring Demand for all occupations improved by 2.9%.

Source: WANTED Analytics

Source: WANTED Analytics

The following double-bar chart compares September's year-over-year drop (burgundy) to August's (gray). Burgundy bars that are shorter than gray ones indicate relative improvement since last month. The chart can be enlarged by clicking on it.

Chart

Click chart to view full size

Several occupations are worth noting.

Read more »

IT Hiring Demand Down 2.3% in August, Networking Workers Hit Hardest

By Charles Thibault on September 1, 2009 in Computer/Math/IT, Hiring Demand Indicators.

Hiring Demand for Information Technology workers has dropped 2.3% since mid-July, according to data from WANTED Analytics. This fall occurs after an upswing started in the spring. National Hiring Demand dropped 0.7% over the same period.

Source: WANTED Analytics

Source: WANTED Analytics

The following bar chart compares the year-over-year percent changes from July 2009 to those in August 2009. Burgundy columns extending past the gray columns means that there are sharper year-over-year losses compared to last month.

All IT occupations have lost more ground than the national average.

Chart

Click chart to view full size

Read more »

IT Occupations Slip 5.7% in July

By Charles Thibault on July 27, 2009 in Computer/Math/IT, Hiring Demand Indicators.

Hiring Demand for IT Occupations slipped 5.7% on a year-over-year basis compared to last month. Nine of the ten IT occupations classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed decline.

Compared to last year, Hiring Demand for IT occupations is down 35.7%. It was down only 30% last month. "Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts", which had been relatively spared so far, saw the largest relative drop in Hiring Demand, falling 9% to -18.2% compared to a year ago.

Chart

Click chart to view full size

Read more »

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