North Texas tech companies are facing the prospect of delayed projects, overworked employees and problems retaining workers because of a shortage of job candidates who have the right technical skills. The number of Dallas area job postings on the technology employment website Dice.com hit 2,605 in May, up 36 percent compared to the same period in 2010. On Wednesday, there were 2,927 openings. “(The effect is) your inability to develop products as quickly as possible to serve customers,” said Brian Rankin, staffing manager at Dallas based Texas Instruments.
Although the impact of the shortage is hard to measure, businesses feel it regardless of whether they’re in the tech space, experts said. For instance, a retail business that needs a redesign of its website might have to wait until enough people can be assembled to get the update completed. “Any decisions about putting off (tech) projects; they’re not trivial decisions,” said Jim Thompson, president of the Dallas technology staffing company The InSource Group. “They affect revenue and profitability in many instances.”
(from the Dallas Business Journal June 10, 2011 – author Jeff Bounds Dallas Business Journal Senior Staff Writer) [Read More…]