Fifty-one percent of U.S. companies will hire technology professionals in 2015, and for the third year in a row the proportion of tech professionals employed on a full-time, permanent basis has risen, this year to 70 percent, according to the third annual “Harvey Nash Technology Survey: Disruptors & Disrupted – the New Tech Flux.” The report shares findings from 3,189 technology professionals from 49 countries, and reveals that despite the undisputed acceleration of technology investments, innovation remains an ever-changing and unclear goal. Technologists around the globe ranked the U.S. as the most innovative country, receiving twice as many votes as the next nearest country, Japan. But the U.S. is least optimistic about its own innovative future, with only 45 percent considering their own country innovative. The U.S. chose Japan, China and South Korea as leaders in this category.
With demand for skills and tech investments up, more than half (52 percent) of U.S. companies are still experiencing a technology skills shortage. Technology professionals are more comfortable with the health of the U.S. technology economy: almost half (48 percent) changed jobs this past year, 20 percent more than in 2013. Almost 8 in 10 people (78 percent) chose work-life balance as the number one reason for leaving their job for another. Salary ranks fourth on the list.
“The pace and evolution of disruptive technology is quickening, and innovation means something different today than it did 12 months ago,” said Harvey Nash USAPAC President and CEO Bob Miano. “As technologists we are all connected globally, and international borders are almost non-existent now. Yet our 2015 Technology Survey reveals different and unique perspectives from each country. The world voted the U.S. as the most innovative country by far, yet the U.S. has doubts about its own innovative ability. The definition of innovation continues to change as we move closer to technologies we’ve never before been able to create, like gene therapy and self-driving cars. The companies that most successfully intersect the humanities with technology will continue to disrupt and dominate.”
Other key findings of the Harvey Nash 2015 Technology Survey include:
Borderless Technology
The Next Big Thing
Technologies most likely to make a big impact in the next five years are big data analytics, cloud, eHealth, mobile and wearable technologies.
Technologists called out Uber, Oculus, Twitter, airbnb and Tesla among the startups that will make it big.
18 of the 20 companies ranked in the Next Big Thing are U.S.-based; yet the U.S. doesn’t believe itself to be innovative.
Google Dominates
Investment
Geek Is Chic