Narayan AmmachchiThe pressure to boost the technology talent pool is mounting on the US government, with online retailing giant Amazon announcing plans to build its second and third American headquarters in New York and Virginia creating nearly 25,000 technology jobs.
There will be many jobs for software developers, and specialists in artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to news reports citing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who was present at the time of Amazon’s announcement.
“We were looking for a location with strong local and regional talent—particularly in software development and related fields—to continue hiring and innovating on behalf of our customers,” stated the online giant in a statement.
“These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.
In addition, Amazon has announced construction of a center of excellence in Nashville, which will serve as the company’s Eastern US regional hub for the tech and management functions.
Amazon’s expansion will obviously exacerbate the tech talent shortage in the country, where there are already a great demand for computer programmers, mobile app developers, data scientists and cybersecurity experts.
American companies advertised for more than 282,000 positions in emerging technologies so far this year, an increase of 65% over the same period in 2017, according to the data compiled by a technology industry Association, CompTIA.
Thanks to the lack of talent, many Indian IT firms have begun employing fresh graduates with plans to train in the skills they required. Hexaware, for example, is even mulling bringing Mexican staff to the US offices.
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