Detroit: Southeast Michigan’s tech demand darling

Lisa Katz| Crain’s Detroit Blog

In first quarter 2013, Southeast Michigan saw over 76,185 unique online job postings. That represents a 38 percent increase over fourth quarter 2012 (to be expected — hiring tends to decline during the holiday season) but a 7.7 percent decline compared to a year ago.

Several of the region’s key occupational clusters, including health care and advanced manufacturing, saw modest declines in job postings (occupational demand) over that time period. Of the Southeast Michigan occupational clusters tracked most closely by the Workforce Intelligence Network, information technology alone saw demand increase compared with first quarter of last year. In fact, demand for IT occupations climbed 22 percent.

NOTE: Southeast Michigan includes Genesee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Shiawassee, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties.

Several Southeast Michigan counties saw the number of IT job postings increase relative to a year ago, but Wayne County stole the show, with 5,719 postings in Q1 2013, followed by Oakland (3,509 IT postings) then Washtenaw (1,019 postings).

The real darling of IT job demand in the region, however, is the city of Detroit, which lays claim to 65 percent of IT demand in Wayne County (3,735 of Q1 2013 postings) and almost 33 percent of total regional demand. In fact, from first quarter last year to first quarter of last year, the number of Detroit-based IT job postings soared 104 percent. Much of this demand is being driven by increased need for computer programmers, computer systems analysts, software developers for applications, IT project managers, and system engineers/architects. Demand for talent in these occupations in Q1 2013 grew between 77 percent and 162 percent over Q1 2012 levels.

With such trends breathing down their backs, Detroit-based IT employers, including companies like those involved in IT in the D (Compuware, Fathead, GalaxE. Solutions, Market Associates, and Quicken), are pulling no punches to attract, retain, and grow the talent they need for success. This means pursuing company-driven externships, internships and other strategies to give workers desired career exposure and experience, as well as development of new training and education initiatives to make sure workers have necessary technical skills.

The difficulty is that many Detroiters (including city residents) struggle to participate in the available job opportunities, lacking necessary credentials and experience. Several efforts have been tried to give jobseekers a shot at landing these new opportunities, but no one seems to have found a magic bullet that can help workers prepare for these jobs quickly and adequately.

Rest assured, though, that talent partners from the region’s Michigan Works! Agencies, community colleges, and other institutions will continue to try. After all, recent employer outlook surveys suggest that employers actually are more optimistic about hiring this year compared to last, which could mean even more upticks in IT (and other) hiring demand for this year. These institutions are working side-by-side with companies to find solutions to meet demand AND create opportunities for Southeast Michigan’s diverse workforce, which, more likely than ever, could find itself working in Detroit.