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Demand For Agile Skills Outstripping Supply

by Christopher Goldsbury on Dec 26, 2012 |

The demand for agile development skills is outstripping supply according to two independent studies conducted in 2012 by CWJobs and Yoh IT and appears likely to continue in 2013.

CWJobs, a UK firm, sites the following trends permanent agile positions advertised in the UK and Irish information technology markets:

2010 - 3,283 jobs.
2011 - 5,767 jobs.
2012 - 6,441 jobs.

Yoh IT, a US based information technology staffing firm with a worldwide presence, reported these figures:

Advertised agile jobs outnumbered candidates 4.59 to 1.
Some of the top job posters for agile over the last two years were: Microsoft, Fidelity, Amazon.com, Hewlett Packard, and IBM.
The top three job titles requiring agile skills: java developer, software engineer and project manager.
Agile job postings = 558,198.
Active agile candidates = 121,876.
The demand is not evenly spread. It is highest in Washington, California, Oregon, Minnesota, New York and Massachusettes.

Some conclusions reached by these studies:

Contractors and consultants are in the best position to meet the skills shortage as companies increasingly turn outward to acquire the knowledge they lack internally.
Because the agile experienced talent pool is low relative to the demand, there is a high likelihood of recruiters getting a low quality agile candidate.
Adoption of agile methodologies has accelerted in the last half decade, but the training for front line developers has not kept pace.

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Community comments

Where did they get these number from? by Dean Schulze Posted

Where did they get these number from? by Dean Schulze

How did they determine the number of active agile candidates? I wonder what makes someone an agile candidate. The numbers look pretty soft to me.

Two of the five top companies posting agile positions - HP and IBM - are companies that many people don't want to work for due to their culture and ongoing problems. If IBM and HP are having problems hiring people it probably isn't due to a lack of candidates.