According to voters, two of the most important issues facing America throughout the 2016 presidential campaign were the economy and jobs. As a result, both presidential candidates focused their attention more on job creation and bringing back to America the jobs that had been outsourced overseas.
Inauguration day is here, and just as throughout the campaign, jobs remain a top concern of the American people and a top priority for the 45th President of the United States—who promised during the campaign to not only be “the greatest jobs president…”—but also promised to punish American companies that outsourced work overseas or south of the border.Only time will tell if President Trump’s campaign promises will be kept and implemented by the incoming administration. So for now, let’s do this: take a look at job growth in the technology industry and how outsourcing onshore can help keep jobs on American soil and help companies and communities grow—which sounds quite like one of the goals that the President-elect is hoping to accomplish over the next four years—doesn’t it?
Technology Industry Growth
There is no doubt that the tech space is growing at warp speed and is a major part of the United States’ economy. To get a good idea of just how much, in its Cyberstates 2016 report, non-profit trade association CompTIA, found that employment in the tech industry had its highest growth rate in more than a decade—marking the fifth year of consecutive growth for the industry with employment for the year reaching 6.7 million, which was a gain of around 200,000 from the previous year.
According to the findings in the report, IT services led the charge adding 105,400 jobs—a figure that represents more than half of the overall job growth in tech and makes total employment of IT services around 2.2 million. Next in growth percentage was the engineering services, R&D and testing sector, which added 48,100 jobs for a total of 1.7 million employees. Third was telecommunications and Internet services, which added 35,700 employees for a total of around 1.325 million. And fourth was software with 5,300 employees added.
With Growth Comes Challenges
With the exponential job growth and “blink of an eye” changes in the tech industry, comes something else in the industry that is also increasing in size and transforming. And that’s the shortage of skilled IT talent to fill positions.
In a recent article from the Boston Globe, the shortage of skilled IT talent has become the top issue for many Massachusetts companies, with many tech executives and managers seeing the shortage as a threat to their ability to expand and develop new technologies. In other words, a threat to their company’s continued growth and prominence.
Additionally, human resource consulting firm Randstad, in its annual Workplace Trends report released in June of this year, found that the inadequate supply of qualified and skilled talent is the second biggest threat to companies’ ability to meet revenue or business performance targets—second only to “increased competitive pressures.”
Outsourcing Rurally to the Rescue
With IT project managers under more pressure than ever to deliver projects faster, meet targets and grow business while keeping costs under control, hiring for higher level positions while outsourcing lower level positions is an effective method to accomplish these goals.
Outsourcing allows IT managers to focus on core competencies, frees internal sources, reduces labor costs and lowers risk, while increasing efficiency and competiveness. But just as what the incoming president is talking about—keeping jobs in America—what we are also talking about is not outsourcing to countries in the Far East or south of the border—we are talking about outsourcing onshore and specifically in rural America.
Rural sourcing is one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry and a key component in both bringing back and keeping high skilled IT jobs on home soil. And while its service model can provide many benefits to corporations doing business in America, it can also benefit lives by providing challenging and rewarding IT careers to individuals. And as a result, small American communities thrive, as sourcing rurally helps ensure local spending and inspires wealth creation, which is a “win-win-win” for this country.
With domestic rural sourcing providers, there’s no longer a need for IT executives and managers to go overseas for skilled IT talent, they can find the talent they need to get the job done right the first time right in their own backyard. And in doing so, can help “Make America Great Again” which we are certain to be hearing about in the inaugural address.
