IT professionals in hot demand in 2016
If you're an IT professional, 2016 is going to be a good year for you.
According to a survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, an increasing number of companies in the Chicago region plan to bulk up their IT staffs in 2016. The study, conducted among 100 company CIOs in the region, found 21 percent expect to expand their IT teams in the first half of 2016 — a four percent increase from the same period last year.
The survey also found 68 percent plan to hire for only open IT roles, while 9 percent plan to put hiring plans on hold, and 2 percent plan to reduce their IT staffing levels in the first six months of the year.
The areas in most demand will be desktop support, according to 59 percent of the CIOs surveyed, network administration, 57 percent, and database management 54 percent.
What's making the market hot for IT professionals right now is the gap between the need for specific skills and the available talent to fill that need, according to Hilary McCafferty, branch manager with Robert Half Technology in Oakbrook Terrace.
“The pool is definitely getting tighter and tighter,” McCafferty said. “There's a lot of demand in IT. People are doing what they can to attract good IT professionals.”
You could say that's it's a seller's market for these IT jobs today, as another Robert Half survey expects starting salaries for IT positions to increase 5.3 percent during 2016. Wireless networking engineers are in the most demand, and will see the highest predicted gains at 9.7 percent, the survey concluded.
McCafferty noted that higher salaries aren't the only perquisite IT professionals can expect when job hunting, as companies are offering alternate benefits to draw quality talent.
“Flex scheduling is a bigger trend these days, as well as work from home options,” she said. “Anything they can do to provide the latest and greatest tech options will always attract and retain people as well.”
While STEM education has accelerated over the past few years to address the skills gap, McCafferty said the impact of those programs have not reached the job market yet. “We're still seeing a skills gap in the marketplace,” she noted. “This is definitely a great time to have that skill set.”
#Parking upgrade
Parking spot sharing site ShareASpot has found itself a new place to park on the Information Superhighway. The start up company founded by Franklin Park resident Devin Bates recently merged with ParqEx, a similar Chicago-based shared parking site focused in the city.
Coincidentally, both ParqEx and ShareASpot launched in early 2015 with similar ideas. While ShareASpot found initial success in the suburbs, ParqEx started carving its niche in the Chicago neighborhoods.
“We were launched at similar times and doing basically similar things,” said ParqEx COO Matt Schaefer. “We kind of discovered each other ... We realized we're going to be better off if we just get together than if we keep kind of battling it out.”
The service basically is the same: People who have a space that someone can park a vehicle — like a driveway, garage, or concrete slab — can advertise that spot for rental on daily, weekly or monthly basis. Those looking for a spot can use the site at no charge to connect with a seller.
ParqEx has the technology advantage of an established website and mobile app.
While ParqEx is more city-focused, Schaefer said they have elevated their priority to expanding into the suburbs based on the success Bates had with ShareASpot.
“We recognize there are 100,000 people or more coming into the city every day on Metra,” he said. “We've all heard the stories of how hard it is to find a parking spot near Metra stations or at some of the outlying CTA stations. We are incorporating that into our strategy after seeing te early success Devin had in Oak Park and Franklin Park.”
Bates will continue with ParqEx as a marketing director, Schaefer said, and his long-term of expanding the business will continue with ParqEx.
“We need to get momentum in Chicago, and we would be looking to expand geographically no later than 2017,” he said. “We've already been getting messages from people in other cities saying ‘can you bring this to our city?', so we know it's not a Chicago-specific thing.'”
For more information and to download the app, go to www.parqex.com.