Demand Tops Supply For High-Tech Workers Washington Firms Compete For Scarce Skilled Employees

For the technologically apt, the Puget Sound region has become a sellers’ market.

In an increasingly tight labor market, companies such as Boeing and Microsoft are searching vigorously for qualified applicants to fill positions in computers, engineering and other technology areas.

And they’ve been forced to offer higher wages to attract candidates.

“The thing that concerns us, as a company and an industry, is are there enough people coming into the work force who have the talent we need?” said Microsoft recruitment director David Pritchard.

Washington’s unemployment rate in July was 5.4 percent, the lowest for that month in five years. And technology jobs are expected to increase nearly four times as fast as the job market as a whole.

“Both of those industries are classic cases of what’s been a trend for 15 years,” said Robert Plotnick, a professor in the University of Washington’s Graduate School of Public Affairs. “The information age puts a premium on people who can work with symbols and ideas and high-tech equipment, and if you’re slow at those things or never learned, you’re in trouble.”

Boeing plans to add 8,200 workers by year’s end and may add at least that many more next year. Shortages range from structural engineers in the Commercial Airplane Group to computer systems integrators at Boeing Information and Support Services.

“Demand is high and supply is low for people who can integrate systems and pull them all together,” said Boeing spokesman Bob Jorgensen. “That’s something that people all over the country are looking for.”

Microsoft has 1,000 job openings, most of them technical positions. In the past three years, the Redmond-based software company has expanded its campus recruitment to 100 colleges, Pritchard said.

A recent report by Coopers & Librand L.L.P. concluded that finding technical talent is the most difficult problem facing companies nationally.

Keeping talent was the second-biggest challenge facing the software industry, the report said.