IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

IT jobs are growing at a much faster rate than the number of employees who are trained to fill them. Fewer people are graduating with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degrees. And many current IT employees are set to retire soon.

This situation has led to a shortage of skilled IT workers in 18 states and Washington, D.C., according to an America's Tech Talent Crunch report from Dice, a career site for technology and engineering professionals. States with the highest shortages are New Jersey, Texas, New York, Massachusetts and California -- and in California, many software engineers receive five to 10 job offers a day on LinkedIn.

“Today, America’s wireless industry continues to grow based on consumer demand that’s at an all-time high, and the staggering growth of mobile broadband traffic has created an explosion in new services, new devices, content and applications,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell told the symposium.

“Across the developing world, places like China and India are putting the informational pedal to the metal,” Schumer said. “If we don’t have our kids keep pace, then our kids are going to be left in the interview line as someone else takes their place.”

The tech sector’s recovery from the Great Recession is good news everywhere but within government IT departments. When the economy tanked, one of the few bright spots was a surge in the number of skilled technology workers applying for public-sector jobs. But with private companies hiring again, governments are struggling to compete for IT talent.

To make matters worse, a good chunk of the public-sector IT workforce is poised to leave. The sour economy delayed the long-predicted baby boomer retirement wave, but it’s still coming. Many state and local IT departments will see a quarter to a third of their employees become eligible for retirement in the next few years—the ratio is as much as half in some places. Financial uncertainty that kept these workers on the job over the past few years is easing, and changes to pensions may help push them out the door.

The plan, led by the State Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) is called the Technology/Information Resource Management (IT/IRM) Transformation Plan. It includes three major components — streamlining the state's 743 discrete agencies, using shared services across the enterprise, and establishing an oversight policy to properly manage the entire organization. The first two years of the 12-year project are set aside for planning.

In June, the group Wired Wisconsin announced that a joint report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission shows that more than one in four rural Americans lack access to broadband services.

For Wisconsin, half a million residents do not have access to Internet broadband technology with download speeds greater than three megabytes per second. Also, more than a million state residents do not have access to broadband with download speeds greater than six megabytes per second.

This past October, the center hosted a global conference on public-sector technology that drew more than 300 leaders from more than 50 countries. A number of best e-gov practices emerged during the three-day conference, and I asked Pardo to share a few of her favorites.

Similarly, Google employs only 30,000 workers and even a heavyweight software employer like Microsoft has only 90,000 employees. Compare the employee numbers at Apple or Google or other symbols of the "new economy" to the massive employment numbers by corporate leaders of yesteryear like General Motors or U.S. Steel and you get an inkling of why our economy is having so much trouble generating jobs.

Rural communities desperate for money to invest in technology upgrades and expanded broadband access could have a new best friend in New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

Ayotte introduced legislation last month that would return 75 percent of all funds collected through the Universal Service Fund (USF) – created by the FCC in 1997 to support telecommunications services in public areas such as libraries and schools – back to rural states.

It is a worthy goal, given the importance of rural America to the economy. However, when it comes to the Obama administration promoting broadband development in rural America -- a prerequisite for economic growth -- the left hand may not know what the right hand is doing. The Obama administration is sending decidedly mixed signals about its view of telecom and broadband access in rural areas.

To combat the negative factors presented, the Council presented its findings and made specific suggestions on ways to address these issues.

In the "new normal," with governments buried under show-stopping financial and political pressure, we don't want our budget directors to simply hunker down with across-the-board spending cuts. Lockstep cuts will miss the opportunity to increase productivity. We can't afford that. Productivity is the "seed corn" for our future—and perhaps for the next election.

Any serious focus on productivity will draw attention to information technology, today's single most important tool for improving output in government as well as society at large. As a former budget director who has focused for years on the impact of technology on government, let me offer you some issues to discuss with your own budget director.

The 10th annual "Digital Cities Survey" by The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities this month named Salt Lake City the second-best city government for its size in how it leverages technology for workers and residents. It was tied with the Winston-Salem, N.C., area in the category of cities with a 125,000 to 249,999 population. Last year, Salt Lake City also was ranked second.

Public sector digitisation initiatives alone will have US$63 million, while US$19.7 million will go into education digitisation initiatives.

Policy analysts, however, are unconvinced the program will fill a real economic need.

Connect Ohio, slated for completion at the end of June, was proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland (D) during his 2006 campaign. With $2.9 million a year in taxpayer funding, it is a public-private partnership to map out broadband access in the state and evaluate how technology is being used by the public. The stated goal is to use this information to spur private entities to invest in the areas lacking broadband service.

To ensure continued success, however, Alabama must lay the proper technological foundation.

If all areas of our state are to reap the benefits of robust economic growth, we must make broadband, also known as high-speed Internet access, available to every resident. Currently Alabama ranks 43rd in the nation in personal computer ownership and 44th in Internet access.

Today too few rural Americans take advantage of the opportunities broadband provides. Only half of rural residents subscribe to broadband – compared to 65 percent nationwide – because too many communities in rural America don’t have adequate access to broadband infrastructure.

Connected Nation, which started as a state program called ConnectKentucky, uses mostly state and some federal and private funding to stimulate broadband roll out. The nonprofit group says it has expanded broadband availability in Kentucky from 60 percent of households to 95 percent of households since January 2004.

Governor Schwarzenegger commissioned the Task Force back in November 2006, and the group was given the goals of making access universal, pushing the buildout of new broadband infrastructure, and driving the use of broadband-only applications.

A California report offers a deep look into who has broadband there and who does not and may serve as a model for other states, said an official with Cisco Systems.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Broadband Task Force, which released the report Thursday, found that 96 percent of Californians have access to broadband, but speeds vary significantly region to region. Only about 54 percent of Californians have access to 10Mbps, and about 56 percent of the state's residents subscribe to broadband service, the report said.