An article from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, entitled "What Job Shortage? Firms Go Begging for High-Tech Talent," addresses the surprising trend that fewer students are enrolling in IT programs:

Nationwide, [Randy] Guthrie [Microsoft academic relations manager] maintains, enrollments in college-level computer science programs have dropped as much as 70 percent compared to enrollments of 10 years ago. "Information systems are down a similar degree."

It follows, according to the article, that the demand for entry-level IT workers is outpacing supply:

"Every employer I’ve talked to says they can’t find enough people to hire," [Robert] St. Louis [professor of information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business] maintains. "There are internships that aren’t getting filled … new positions that aren’t getting filled. Every employer says programs like ours are not turning out enough people."

The dramatic drop in the workforce pipeline is being attributed to the fear that all IT jobs get offshored, and that the career offers no job security.  This trend is particularly alarming as the bulk of the current IT workforce ages and retires. 

However, not all IT jobs are in computer programming, and not all jobs are offshore-able–companies need analysts and managers who can solve business problems, not just code:

Employers, [St. Louis] maintains, need people who can handle "management of technology in business. It requires all the leadership skills, strategic vision and project management ability used in any management career." (emphasis mine)

In an earlier post I asked if offshoring would threaten innovation. I expressed my hope and belief that the market will value innovation. It does seem that the job market is slowly, perhaps clumsily, responding to the need for innovation. Offshoring can help companies get deliverables produced once project requirements are carefully spelled out. But identifying and solving business problems cannot be summarily "outsourced" and "offshored".

The companies who need innovators and schools who need students need to keep getting the word out–that the smart jobs, the innovating jobs, are aplenty.