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A talent gap exists in tech. The number of computer programming jobs is growing at twice the national average for all jobs. By 2020, according to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1 million more computer science-related job openings than college graduates qualified to fill them. Recruiting and retaining tech talent is a top business challenge.
There’s no shortage of rationales for why it’s so hard to find good candidates for these jobs. Some argue tech firms should look at skill sets rather than college degrees. Others say kids aren’t getting exposure to computer science early enough. A recent study conducted by Google and Gallup showed that schools don’t think demand for computer science subjects from parents and students is there. And others still point to the role of race and gender and the unconscious biases that, they say, have contributed to the pitifully low numbers of diverse workers at tech firms.
Now, job-search site Indeed has dug into its own job seeker and employer data to unearth another reason tech job openings are going unfilled. In a new report, the site finds that although employers are actively listing tech jobs throughout the US (and indeed, throughout the world), job hunters are searching for them in just a few cities: San Jose, California (Silicon Valley); San Francisco; Seattle; and Austin.
According to Tara Sinclair, an economics professor at The George Washington University and chief economist at Indeed, the report is significant. Efforts to conduct surveys on the tech talent gap can always be conducted, she says, but “this is the first time anyone’s looked at this data, in terms of observationally seeing how job seekers are looking for tech jobs.” In other words, it’s one thing to ask people how they look for tech jobs, and it’s another to examine existing data about how they naturally conduct those searches.
So why would interest in tech jobs be concentrated in just a few cities? Sinclair says it's likely in part because prospective employees are inclined to look where they know the jobs already are. "Job seekers’ awareness of labor market conditions may lag somewhat," she says.
Interest from job seekers in these four hubs is only growing more concentrated over time: In 2013, according to Indeed’s data, interest in tech-related jobs was 3.3 greater in San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle and Austin than in the US on average. In 2015, the interest in those cities was 3.6 times greater.
From chatting with a number of job seekers, Sinclair says it seems that candidates are attracted to cities where tech opportunities and an ingrained tech culture have historically existed.
"If you’re going to move to a city and you’re planning to make a life there, you want to know that there are other tech-related jobs you could take if you don’t end up liking your job," she says.
"In terms of softer evidence, job seekers seem to have similar interests in terms of the lifestyle and community they want to be a part of. There’s that sense of a tech community beyond where you go to work everyday."
Contrary to popular belief, according to Indeed's data, the tech talent gap is actually getting narrower in the US. It still exists, but interest from job seekers is growing. “It’s actually growing quite markedly,” Sinclair says. “More so in these tech hubs than in the US, but, it is growing in the US as well.”
The gap between the share of tech job postings and the share of tech job searches is larger in some cities than in others, Indeed’s data shows. But across the board, the talent shortage decreased by 33.6 percent from 2013 to 2015 on average in the US.
Sinclair acknowledges that Indeed only looked at searches for jobs in tech, which doesn’t cover tech’s rate of attrition (people leaving the tech industry later in their career), and she acknowledges that some people who are searching for jobs may not necessarily have the needed tech skills. But, she says, the insights yielded by the data are still useful. “A first step towards taking a job is being interested in working in that industry,” says Sinclair.
The report surfaced a few other gems. The top programming language that job seekers search for is Java—which makes sense, since it's a language that’s used in so many different areas of tech, from coding mobile apps for Android to big Internet services like Twitter and Google, not to mention underpinning the backends of old-school businesses.
The data also showed that both job seekers and employers are becoming increasingly interested in data science. This tracks with the rise of the celebrity data scientist, from Nate Silver’s election predictions to Paul DePodesta’s gamechanging "moneyball" tactics in Major League Baseball. Though a wealth of software for collecting and analyzing data exists, not many people are qualified or able to see the bigger picture beyond crunching numbers. Data scientists—who, as we’ve written, tend to be more experimental—can.
Finally, though the tech talent gap is getting narrower, Sinclair says employers clearly still need to do the work to attract more people to the industry—especially more diverse candidates. “It’ll be interesting to watch how employers address the gap,” Sinclair says. “People and companies might find ways to make it an interesting job for a broader and more diverse workforce.”
