Just over a decade ago, IT departments were scrambling to hire enough programmers to rewrite mountains of computer code to fix the Y2K bug. It worked, and if it weren’t for all the media coverage, most people would probably have had no idea there was ever a problem.
More recently, some IT specialists were asking whether the industry faced “another Y2K”: the baby boomer retirement. That sensationalist sense of urgency has been toned down today, as thousands of IT workers remain unemployed because of the recession.
Still, some local IT leaders are concerned that Minnesota may not have enough qualified IT professionals to fill open positions as the baby boomers retire in the coming years. A variety of efforts are underway to close what some are calling the “IT talent gap” facing the state.
“When the market comes back and people can afford to retire, they’re going to be going,” says Bruce Lindberg, director of Advance IT Minnesota, a five-year-old program at St. Paul–based Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) that promotes better alignment of the IT industry and the education system. He says major Minnesota companies are concerned about who they’re going to have available to replace some of their top IT professionals who will be retiring in the near future.
The challenge isn’t unique to Minnesota, or even to the IT industry. However, Lindberg and others believe the IT pipeline needs attention in Minnesota because of the critical, behind-the-scenes role IT plays in the state’s economy, as well as the opportunity that may exist for making the region home to one of the top IT work forces in the country. A larger and more skilled IT work force would improve the chances of retaining and attracting new jobs and companies to the state.
Parsing the Numbers
Advance IT Minnesota co-hosted a summit in June 2008 to discuss trends and forecasts related to the supply and demand of IT workers. Lindberg says the numbers at the time were “alarming” for employers. Although the recession has masked the urgency in the short term, he says serious concerns remain about the long-term picture.
The work force summit laid the groundwork for a new coalition of educators and employers called the Minnesota IT Workforce Collaborative, which launched later that year. Since then, the collaborative has worked closely with Advance IT Minnesota to advocate for programs and policies to close the IT talent gap.
