Clashes over compensation hurting tech companies’ ability to hire

While access to skilled labor remains the top concern for companies in New Jersey’s technology sector, qualified job seekers are not willing to start their careers at the low salary levels currently offered by businesses, and are instead taking jobs in other fields, industry experts said.

“What the disconnect between education and technology companies comes down to is, is this a skills or a dollars issue?” said James C. Bourke, a partner at Withum, Smith & Brown’s Red Bank technology practice. “The mismatch is we have kids coming out of college with the talent, but companies don’t want to pay them a higher salary, because they’ll have to invest time and dollars in training them. Companies want their talent, but they’re not willing to pay the salary levels for these people, and people with the skill sets would rather not work or take a job elsewhere than start at the company with a lower salary level.”

Joseph Seneca, an economist at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said “it’s possible people with skills are filling tech jobs across a whole wide range of industries, and are not seeing themselves only at technology firms anymore”, according to a report in NJBIZ.  >>More here

SOURCE:  njbiz.com