Hot job market expected to get hotter

Even before Amazon announced Arlington, Virginia as the site of its second headquarters, the labor market in the greater Washington area was already red hot.

The home territory for many government contractors has seen its national profile as a tech hub skyrocket since the Amazon announcement. In the wake of that announcement came other news including major universities investing millions to break ground on new facilities to educate and train workers.

And many expect the addition of Amazon will become a gravitational force drawing in other companies.

For government contractors, workforce and human capital planning are front center in the C-suite. GovCon people business, we hear over and over. Amazon will make it more challenging and competitive, but it would be tough no matter what.

We’ll be discussing these topics at our Washington Technology Power Breakfast this Friday, Sept. 27, in Tysons, Virginia.

To prepare for that event, we take a look at the job market for the Northern Virginia region, an area dominated by government contractors.

The Northern Virginia Community College Office of Corporate and Workforce Development tracks the labor market. A recent report it puts numbers behind the feeling the IT job market is tight and getting tighter.

Nine of the region's top 10 IT employers are government contractors with General Dynamics leading the way. Others in the top 10 include Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, ManTech, Leidos, CACI International, Northrop Grumman, Deloitte and Perspecta.

The lone now government contractor on the list is Capital One, a D.C.-based bank.

But of course, IT is a big bucket so the report identifies some of the top jobs:

• Software developer
• Software engineer
• Systems analyst
• Network and computer systems administrator

What jobs are expected to see the most growth over the next three years?

• Software developer, applications
• Information security analysts
• Computer systems analyst
• Software developers, systems
• Computer user support specialists

Jobs expected to decline?

• Computer operators
• Computer programmers
• Data entry keyers

And those three declining jobs are among the lowest paid, while the growing IT jobs are among the higher paid positions.

We’ll have author of this report on hand Friday to discuss what it means along with an economic development executive. That will lay the foundation by a presentation of data and insights into the health of the workforce and where it is headed.

Click here for more information on the event and to register to attend.