When you compare the number of job openings available, the overall job satisfaction rating, and the rate of remuneration, skilled technical jobs are among the leaders. Why?
Beyond Compensation
First, let’s discuss this topic of salary. The top 10 Tech Jobs right now have a median pay-rate of between 68k and 125k. When you average the medians for those ten jobs it comes in at a nice $98,250 per year. It would be hard for most human beings to even be dissatisfied with a mere $68,000 per year.
Those Top 10 jobs in technology, according to a July/2017 summary, released in early August were:
| Job Title | Median Salary | Open Positions | Percent of Job Satisfaction |
| 1. Solution Architect | 125k | 2,200 | 74 % |
| 2. DevOps Engineer | 110k | 2,700 | 84 % |
| 3. Data Scientist | 110k | 4,200 | 88 % |
| 4. Data Engineer | 106k | 2,600 | 86 % |
| 5. Software Engineer | 101k | 17,000 | 70 % |
| 6. Database Admin | 93K | 2,900 | 76 % |
| 7. UX Designer | 92k | 1,700 | 80 % |
| 8. QA Manager | 92k | 2,500 | 74 % |
| 9. Mobil App Developer | 85k | 2,100 | 74 % |
| 10. Sys Admin | 68K | 4,000 | 74% |
Clearly, these jobs are in demand; people are being compensated appropriately; and, most importantly, people feel that their job has purpose, and that they are appreciated for performing it. The truth is, there are large factions of workers — whole sectors of our economy — where people never reach a 50 percent job satisfaction rate. There is something inevitable about the advancement of technology, which in turn, offers a greater sense of job security in an ever-changing market.
Ubiquity
Why are there so many jobs available? It is because older companies (which did not traditionally consider themselves data-centric) are now finding themselves in need of the same tools that modern businesses have already adopted. In fact, without them, they just can’t stay competitive. Jobs in the technology sector will continue to flourish as the holdouts come to terms with modern business practices.
More importantly, our economy is slowly, yet inevitably, switching to an information-based economic model. Automation is eliminating many manual labor jobs, making it more difficult for those in any position of political influence to reinstate manufacturing jobs which no longer service a purpose.
STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are now dominating almost all professions. An auto mechanic must be computer savvy in order to operate the diagnostic equipment. An outside sales rep can’t simply rely on a clipboard and carbon paper forms, because without a smart phone, tablet, or laptop, that person is hopelessly outclassed by their competitor.
Ordinary jobs are no longer “ordinary”, so the sooner we get over that notion the better it’s going to be for all of us. If you’re currently in a job that doesn’t employ technology regularly, take a technology course (in school, online, or even self-taught) because every skill you learn makes you more useful and will help keep you employed until you’re ready to retire.
No one wants to be replaced because they went to their boss with a great idea, but when the boss asked them to create a “PowerPoint presentation” for the managers meeting they said “A power-what?”
The Takeaway
The demand for people with any sort of technical skill is high, but the number of graduates has seen some fluctuation in recent years. However, someone with a two or three year community college degree — or even someone who is completely self-taught, yet possesses an excellent skills level – will still possess an add value in the job market.
There are currently 627,000 unfilled technology jobs across all sectors of the economy (USA Today, April/2017). They might be in Healthcare, Banking, Farming, Retail, Real Estate, or anything else you can imagine.
When the whole economy is looking at an unemployment rate of over 5 percent, and the tech sector shows less than half of that amount, it is time to upgrade your skills in order to maintain your relevance in both the job market or as an existing employee.
Stewart, Cooper & Coon, has helped thousands of decision makers and senior executives move up in their careers and achieve significantly improved financial packages within short time frames. Contact Fred Coon – 866-883-4200, Ext. 200