NEW YORK – Massachusetts ranks fifth in the nation for shortage in producing information technology professionals, a recent report by Dice.com revealed.
Nationally, 18 states and Washington, D.C., have shortages of local graduates when comparing job openings to associates and bachelors degrees conferred.
Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have shortages of local graduates when comparing job openings to associates and bachelors degrees conferred. Rhode Island ranked on the other side of the spectrum, at No. 34.
The number of computer and information science degrees awarded in Rhode Island, based on Dice analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics, has decreased steadily from 2005 through 2009.
The awarded degrees have decreased from 626 in 2005 to 555 in 2006 to 499 in 2007 to 489 in 2008 to 452 in 2009.
In Boston, job openings increased 19 percent year over year, suggesting a shortage of talen coming out of colleges and universities.
States with the worst shortages on the “America’s Tech Talent Crunch” report included California, New Jersey, Texas and New York.
Dice cited Ann Hunter of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as saying: “There are easily two or three jobs for every computer science grad. Easy.”
Tim Lindquist, professor of computer science and engineering at Arizona State University, said: “I can’t tell you the last time I had a student, even some of our poorer students, tell me they had trouble finding a job.”
As of May 2, Dice had 75,916 tech job openings, of which 47, 243 were offers for full-time positions.
