Main image of article C++, J2EE, Java Skills Needed in Houston
The availability of candidates with the skills for the growing number of open technology jobs in Houston is becoming a worry for local employers, according to the Houston Business Journal. Citing a study from consulting firm CEB, the newspaper says the gap between open jobs and the tech professionals who can fill them has been widening. The greatest demand is for people skilled in C++, J2EE, Java, .NET and cloud computing. Click here to find a tech job in Houston. CEB said there were 16,000 IT job openings in Houston last year, representing about 20 percent of the area's total technology workforce. That compares to 31,000 jobs in "rapidly growing" Philadelphia, which represented 30 percent of the tech workforce, and 41,000 jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, which represented just 12 percent of the workforce. During the first quarter of 2013, nearly 44 percent of Houston's open jobs required some sort of STEM skills, according to a recent report by the Brookings Institution. Such positions take longer to fill: Jobs requiring STEM skills remained open for 44 days, on average, compared to 35 days for non-STEM jobs. Dallas, San Antonio and Austin face similar challenges. The Business Journal notes that the issue may be exacerbated as the demand for tech skills spreads into new industries. "Over the next five years, the automotive, manufacturing and healthcare industries will all see moderate to high growth of their share of the IT workforce," it said.

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