Businesses no longer see IT as an expense but as an investment that will increase efficiency and keep their company ahead of the curve, and overall there is a shortage of talent. For 2016, IT workers will enjoy a job-seekers market. The skills gap and talent shortage will likely put upward pressure on wages.

So where is the best place to find these scarce qualified candidates? The most popular source in recent years has typically been, and continues to be, the more traditional route of search and recruitment firms. And for IT workers, referrals and word of mouth are another highly popular way to land the right talent, with, according to CIO, 20 percent saying they hired the bulk of workers through these channels in Q4 of 2015.

In Q3, 17 percent of companies cited online job boards as their main source of hiring, but that increased to 19 percent in Q4. Interestingly, in Q3, 13 percent of companies said they hired the bulk of workers through social media, but that has since dropped down to 6 percent in Q4. Meanwhile, companies citing resumes submitted via the company’s website as the source for new hires increased from 7 percent in Q3 to 11 percent in Q4 for the IT sector.

The demand for IT professionals means higher compensation and wages, increased investments by companies to pay more for qualified professionals, and more reasons to hire temporary or contract professionals to fill those IT roles.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.