According to a new report by the Information Technology Association of America, due to the lack of qualified candidates, U.S. companies will not be able to fill 600,000 IT positions over the next 12 months. Of course, IT job seekers who consider themselves qualified, not to mention available, are wondering where all these open jobs are. "I don't believe there is any dearth of qualified candidates," said one out-of-work programmer who has submitted more than 200 resumes since April. "I don't think this economy is going to change any time soon." While ITAA says that there are 600,000 unfilled jobs, it does not say how many of these jobs are actively being advertised. Analysts believe many of these jobs are vacant due to economics rather than a lack of talent – especially since so much talent seems to be out of work. In its report ITAA says U.S. hiring managers will be looking to fill more than one million jobs during the next year. Candidates who are well versed in C++, Oracle, SQL, Java and Windows NT technologies will see the most demand for their services. Since these technologies have been around for some time, some analysts believe that finding qualified candidates shouldn't be a problem. Of course, ITAA's report has been released in time for Congress to consider tinkering with the H-1B visa limit, which is set to go back to 65,000 in 2003. While it does lobby on several tech issues, ITAA would like to see the visa limit abolished, giving tech companies free reign over satisfying their talent needs any way they can. Read more online: Knowledge At Wharton,7/15/02 -- James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA Booz | Allen | Hamilton phone: (410) 684-6566
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