10 things you should know about the tech labor market
Nowadays more and more companies need tech professionals. However, there are not enough people, women in particular, who have the necessary digital skills to access these jobs. Laboratoria represents a solution for closing the ever-growing gap between supply and demand as well as promoting higher female participation in tech careers.
Just over a month ago, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Laboratoria and Google.org decided to work together towards our common goal of helping more Latin American women have the opportunity of becoming web developers. As a first step in this direction, we conducted a study of the tech labor market in order to have a better understanding of the challenges, as well as the opportunities ahead for women in search of tech related jobs.
Below we share with you the 10 most relevant things we learned in our research.
- There’s a growing demand for tech professionals.
Engineering and software development are already two of the most sought-after professions, according to a recent survey led by recruitment company Michael Page in over 36 countries (1). Also, the most in-demand skills by companies in Mexico, Peru and Chile are front-end development, back-end development, prototyping, Ux Design, and mobile development (2). Additionally, knowledge of JavaScript is preferred given that it is still the most commonly used programing language (3).
2. Demand for tech professionals isn’t limited to the tech sector anymore.
Companies outside the tech sector have a growing demand for employees with digital skills. In the United States, two out of three tech jobs are found outside the digital industry (4). This growing demand is due to the fact that industries such as hospitality and food services, medical and automotive, increasingly incorporate digital technology in their different processes (5).
3. The gap between demand and supply of tech talent is ever-growing.
By 2019, Latin America will have a shortage of almost half a million information technology professionals (6). And by 2025, Latin America will need 1.25 million software developers (7).
4. Women hold a minority of tech related jobs.
Nowadays, only 7.6% of developers are women. In Mexico, 10% of programmers are women, while in Chile it’s 5% (8).
5. Gender diversity would be beneficial to the tech industry.
Improving gender diversity in the United States’ workforce could lead to an additional income of between $320 and $390 billion dollars (9).
6. A job in tech means better individual economic opportunities.
In Mexico, web development is one of the 11 best paid occupations (10). In Peru, systems engineers’ salaries are within the 5 most competitive salaries for young people. In Chile, 94% of computer science graduates land a job within the year after graduation.
Moreover, the average salary for a web developer increases by 25% after 5 years experience (11).
7. The lack of women in tech jobs is due in part to the fact that women shy away from choosing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In Mexico, 16% of women graduate from STEM careers in contrast to 36% of men. In Chile, the gap is even larger with 7% and 35% of women and men respectively, graduating from STEM careers (12).
8. Formal studies are not essential to a successful career in tech.
Two out of three developers don’t have a degree in computer science or related fields. Also, 69% of developers say that they are at least partly self-taught (13).
9. Latin America, especially, needs more tech professionals.
In 2015 there were an estimated 60,000 undergraduate computer graduates from accredited US universities. In Chile, there were only 6,638 computer science graduates, while in Mexico there were 12,714 (14).
10. Laboratoria represents a solution for companies in search of tech talent and for young women from low-income backgrounds in search of a better future.
Laboratoria propels young women from low-income backgrounds into careers in tech that transform their future. That is why it is very important to us at Laboratoria that we teach in our classrooms the skills that companies need. By doing so, we can make sure that digital knowledge they receive can be translated into more high quality employment opportunities for our students, as well as into better tech talent for all kinds of enterprises.
As of today, Laboratoria has graduated 400 Latin American women from its four centers located in Lima, Arequipa, Santiago de Chile and Mexico City. More than 76% of them found employment within a three-month period after graduation, earning a salary that was more than double the one they received before arriving at Laboratoria, thus bettering not only their personal income but also that of their entire families.
The success we’ve had since Laboratoria’s foundation three years ago is due to three factors, among many others. In the first place there’s the use of innovative teaching methodologies like agile classroom which promotes a deeper commitment from students as well as teamwork and self-directed learning. In second place there’s the alignment between our syllabus and the necessities of the tech labor market. An example of this is the fact that we teach JavaScript, since it is the most commonly used language and the most sought-after by different companies. And finally, the third factor for success has been the support of the hundreds of companies that have hired our students, offering them a better salary and the possibility of a better future.
Our goal is to train 10,000 young women as web developers by 2020, thus becoming the best source for female tech talent from Latin America to the world. We are confident that we will make it because of our student’s talent, our employees’ hard work, and the continued support of companies around the world.
We hope you enjoyed this post and please contact us if you want to know more about our organization and our program. Till next time!
Sources
(1) 2016–2017 Talent Shortage Survey (Manpower Group, 2016)
(2) Market Study of Web Developmers and Digital Industries in Mexico, Peru and Chile (Euromonitor Consulting, 2016)
(3) Developer Survey Results (Stack Overflow, 2017)
(4) TechHire Initiative (Obama Whitehouse, 2016)
(5) Skills requirements for tomorrow’s best Jobs: Helping educators provide students with skills and tolos they need (IDC/Microsoft, Octorber 2013)
(6) Filling the IT Skills Gap in Latin America with Qualified IT Talent (CISCO, August 2014)
(7) Women in Science and Technology: What does the literatura say? (IDB, February 2014)
(8) SG Wage Market Study 2016 (Software Guru, November 2016)
(9) Decoding Diversity: The economic and economic returns to diversity in tech (Dalberg / INTEL, 2016)
(10) INEGI
(11) Market Study of Web Developers and Digital Industries in Mexico, Peru and Chile (Euromonitor Consulting, 2016)
(12) Global Gender Gap Report (WEF, 2016)
(13) Developer Survey Results (Stack Overflow, 2016)
(14) Education and Training, graduates by field (OECD, 2014)
