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Supporting innovation and growth in the IT industry
Last week, Representative Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), together with their colleagues, came together to form the Congressional Small Business Information Technology Caucus, signaling their recognition of the role the IT sector plays in meeting a number of national priorities. We believe this development could not come soon enough.
While the nation has been riveted by the debate and drama in Washington, D.C. over the debt limit, let’s not overlook the other fundamental challenge -- job creation. Here, the IT industry continues to be a crucial pillar.
There is no greater engine of jobs than the 30-million strong small business sector, whose employees represent over 99 percent of all employer firms and employ over half of all private sector employees.
The majority of IT firms in America fall into this category. Of the roughly 385,000 IT firms in the US, 95 percent -- or about 360,000 firms -- have fewer than 50 employees.
These IT firms are the traditional job creators and can help get the US economy back on a healthy trajectory. However, these and other small firms are also not rebounding as quickly as experts had predicted -— a trend that is impacting the overall national economy.
As Congress and the President develop policies to keep the economy on the right path, it is essential that they take into account both the contributions and requirements of such a critical sector and ensure that the needs and priorities of small IT firms are understood and addressed.
Recently, as our membership gathered in Washington, D.C. for our annual conference, we brought particular focus to two innovation-intensive, high growth areas within the broader technology discussion: health IT and cybersecurity. These emerging fields hold tremendous potential for improving the people’s lives, increasing synergies in the workplace and reducing unnecessary costs. These fields also face complicated policy challenges that require deft legislative understanding in order to achieve their job creation and societal potential.
In the cybersecurity corner, Money Magazine and Payscale.com rank Information Systems Security Engineers in the top twenty most desirable job positions on their annual list of top 100 jobs for growth potential and salary, carrying a 10-year forecast growth of 23%. As global commerce and information sharing become even more prevalent, it’s hard to imagine these jobs receding in their importance or in their numbers.
It is against this IT growth environment and broader economic backdrop that CompTIA is working to bring new entrants into the profession. Along with our more than 2,000 IT member companies, we are working to collaborate with current IT professionals as successful partners in these emerging fields to help provide real solutions to the challenges faced by individuals, businesses and governments. We strive to improve workflow, create efficiencies and transform how people live and work.
Moving forward, our challenge is to do a better job of matching the skills of job seekers to the requirements of employers through proper training and validation. The jobs are there -— Indeed.com estimates about 418,000 open IT jobs in the U.S. as of June 2011 —- we just need to do a better job of getting people into them.
And in tackling this challenge, we are pleased to have Congressional Small Business Information Technology Caucus as a partner.
Todd Thibodeaux is president and CEO of CompTIA, a non-profit trade association advancing the global interests of IT professionals and companies.
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