Hiring in the tech sector is gaining momentum, and Apple is leading the way as they have increased their workforce by over 50 percent in the last two years. Some however, are fearing a repeat of the bubble that occurred in 2000.
Bloomberg reporter Heather Perlberg writes:
Among U.S. technology companies with a market value of more than $100 million, almost 50 increased employment by more than half in the most recently reported two-year period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Some small and mid-size businesses boosted payrolls by almost fivefold, underscoring the resilient demand for Internet services, software and electronics.
Rohit Dhingra is one face behind the statistics. He went to Columbia Business School in New York so he could land a consulting job. Instead, he got hired by a company making computer gear in Silicon Valley.
“A few years back, it just would have been a slam dunk that you want to do investment banking,” Dhingra said. “The future of financial services does not seem as bright.”
Dhingra is among the thousands of workers who switched careers during the economic downturn, lured by a technology industry that kept hiring while other businesses cut jobs or forced current employees to take on more tasks.
While the unemployment rate has dropped in recent months, few companies outside of technology have as big a need for workers. In the software and services industry, 74 companies with more than $100 million in market value expanded their workforce by at least 10 percent. That was more than any other industry group measured by Bloomberg.
Apple, Google, and Amazon were among companies that increased their workforce by over 50 percent in the last two years. Growth such as this has prompted tech companies to consider more applicants from nontechnical backgrounds. They have begun to recruit everywhere, from coast to coast, and everywhere in between. Workers who would have never looked at a career in tech have begun to view the industry as a haven of stability.
The appetite for employees isn’t showing signs of being sated any time soon, as Amazon and Facebook each plan to add thousands of jobs in 2012. EBay is also stepping up their recruiting.
There are some employers concerned that the hiring splurge resembles the go-go days of the dot com bubble. Technology stocks crashed in 2000, causing thousands of technology jobs to vanish.
“After some real dark days, there’s a lot of excitement and innovation happening again, but as a guy who has been through Bubble 1.0, I can’t help but see a lot of similarities,” said Stuart MacDonald, chief marketing and revenue officer at Freshbooks.com, a maker of online business software in Toronto. “I can’t help but think I’ve seen this movie before.”
