.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgleft-sidebar { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Iowa is expected to have 200,000 more jobs than it has people to fill them by 2012, leaving many businesses scrambling to find workers to fill the positions left behind when the Baby Boomer generation retires.

But one industry, information technology, is already beginning to feel the pinch. Despite high wages, there aren’t enough qualified applicants in Iowa to fill all the openings, and the demand is only increasing.

The situation poses a critical problem for technology companies. These businesses face a tough labor market that, if not addressed soon, could force them to re-evaluate their decision to operate in Iowa.

Once you get people here, it’s a pretty easy sell.
– Craig Jackman President, Paragon IT Professionals

The Technology Association of Iowa, a trade organization for companies in the IT and software industry, recently surveyed its members and found that 86 percent have trouble finding qualified employees.

“Without workforce development and better training for Iowa residents, these businesses will not be able to meet their hiring needs locally,” said Leann Jacobson, president of the Technology Association of Iowa. “If they can’t hire a first-class work force, they cannot remain competitive in today’s global economy.”

Sixty-three percent of the companies surveyed said the labor market in Iowa is an impediment to the further growth of their business, and 69 percent said they have considered outsourcing or relocating their operations.

“Ultimately, without a better educated and more highly skilled work force, Iowa will struggle to fill the high-paying jobs that keep young people here, as well as lure young people to our state,” Jacobson said.

This would be a disaster for the state, Jacobson said, because the IT industry currently employs more than 46,000 workers, with annual salaries of $2.52 billion.

“(That only) reflects those Iowa companies that have software and IT businesses as their core business,” Jacobson said. “It does not include workers in non-IT firms, the Principals, Wells Fargos, Rockwell Collinses, which likely employ at least two to three times the number of employees. We estimate there are at least 100,000 IT workers in the state.”

Iowa’s advantage

“Most kids get out of college and want nothing to do with Des Moines,” said Joe Davisson, vice president of consulting for Paragon IT Professionals, a Des Moines-based IT recruiting firm. “They want to be on the coasts. And a lot of them aren’t aware of the number of IT jobs available in Iowa.”

Davisson said firms forgo setting up shop in places like New York, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley to stay in Iowa for many reasons, with low cost of living, low overhead and family ties being near the top of the list. The downside is trying to persuade workers who may not view Iowa as the “sexiest” place to live to give the state a chance.

“We get people into our market from all over the world,” said Craig Jackman, Paragon’s president. “They come in on a short-term consulting job, and many times that gets them hooked.”

Workers get used to short commutes, low crime rates and low housing costs and decide they don’t want to give it up, Jackman said.

“They come back to us looking for a permanent job, because they don’t want to leave,” he said. “Once you get people here, it’s a pretty easy sell.”

And with the growing demand and limited supply of workers, opportunities are plentiful.

“There just aren’t enough IT people,” Davisson said. “We don’t have enough bodies. If you’re good and have any experience at all, we can find you a job.”

Frank Russell, the founder and CEO of GeoLearning Inc., said it is hard to recruit young, single workers because they don’t want to live in Iowa.

“But where Iowa has a real advantage is when those workers start a family and decide they want to settle down,” he said. “Property values, schools and all those other quality-of-life factors are our biggest draws.”

And Russell should know. He started his company, which manages and hosts Web-based learning platforms, in 1997 with only four employees. Now, more than 150 people work at GeoLearning’s West Des Moines headquarters, and it has been named one of Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest-growing private companies for three years in a row.

“The cost of doing business in Silicon Valley is just so high,” he said. “Companies are figuring that out, and workers will have to follow them to find the high-paying jobs.”

Staying home

Dave Weis thought about moving to Boston when he graduated from Iowa State University. He had offers from companies in Silicon Valley as well.

But he said his heart was in Iowa, having grown up in a small town in the western part of the state. So he decided to stay put and start his own company, Internet Solver Inc., which provides a variety of technological services to small businesses in the East Village, downtown Des Moines, West Des Moines and Urbandale.

Today Weis, 29, says the key to his success was finding a niche in a market and making it his own.

“I took the things that I wanted to do that no one would pay me for and turned that into my business model,” he said.

Keeping talented people like Weis in Iowa is one key to the state’s future success, Jacobson said.

“These are the types of jobs that help ensure the success of other industries in the state,” she said. “There are just tons of benefits to having them stay here.”

Jacobson said her organization is making it a priority to get the word out to high school and university counselors that there are opportunities in Iowa to land these types of jobs.

“So many people aren’t aware,” she said. “Counselors are telling their students that they have to move away to get the jobs they are looking for. But there is so much opportunity here, it’s just opportunity galore.”

Jacobson said when young workers go to places like Chicago or New York, they lose balance in their lives.

“They’re working 10- to 12-hour days and don’t have time for family or other activities,” she said.

Iowa has many things in its favor, Russell said, and companies just have to become more creative in the way they look for workers.

“You have to begin to look not just locally or nationally, but globally,” he said.

“Technology has made geography and location not a factor. We have to do a better job of getting the message out that Iowa is a great place to live and work. The rest will take care of itself.”