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Computer Science Career Projections

From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via the ACM - May, 2010

The market for U.S.-based computing careers is expected to thrive, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projecting that computing will be one of the fastest-growing U.S. job markets in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for the foreseeable future. Almost 75 percent of new U.S. science or engineering jobs will be in computing, while just 16 percent will be in traditional engineering positions. The BLS predicts that 27 percent of the new STEM positions will be in software engineering, while new jobs in computer networking and systems analysis will greatly outnumber those in traditional engineering. Despite the abundance of jobs, there is a major decline of undergraduate computer science (CS) degree enrollments, and this is leading to a shortage of graduates. Fierce competition for CS graduates is also causing salaries for computing-related professionals to rise. Statistics indicate that annual STEM job openings through 2018 will come close to 140,000, while the number of college graduates with a degree in computing will barely top 40,000. In contrast, there is an oversupply of engineering, life sciences, mathematics, and physical sciences graduates.

Six Hot Technical Areas for 2010

Here are the six types of skills most in demand among survey respondents who said they expect to hire IT workers in 2010, according to Computerworld's 2010 Forecast survey.
  1. Programming / Application Development
    Business-savvy programmer/analysts with skills in .Net, Java, Web development, and open source software are always in demand.
  2. Help Desk / Technical Support
    As companies recover/grow, so do these needs.
  3. Networking
    The demand for networking professionals is likely connected to the growing complexity of networks and to the stresses placed on them by virtualization and newly popular approaches to application delivery, such as cloud computing and software as a service.
  4. Project Management
    IT Professionals who understand technology and how it fits in the overall business strategy are the ones who add the most value, get paid more, and have the most fulfilling careers.
  5. Security
    Security is an evergreen skill. "If you know how to help keep your company's information secure, there will be a home for you forever."
  6. Business Intelligence
    BI experts and data architects are very much in demand. More important than a BI expert, though, are programmer/analysts who can relate the nitty-gritty of data tables, database joins and data structure to business requirements.