By MITCH MAIMAN //
Long Island’s economy is recovering slowly from the COVID downturn and overall unemployment remains relatively high – but the situation is quite different in the technology segment.
In the tech sector, engineering skills and engineering degrees remain highly desirable. And if you’re an engineer looking to change positions, or were maybe downsized, which happens even in great economies, there are a lot of opportunities out there – and you are in a strong bargaining position.
The national engineering unemployment rate is floating around 3.1 percent – much better than the overall national unemployment rate and the regional unemployment rate here on Long Island, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged at 6.4 percent in January.
When the national unemployment rate hit double digits during the peak of the COVID crisis, engineering unemployment ran between 4 and 6 percent. And from 2017-2019, the engineering unemployment rate never got above 3 percent.
Economists estimate “full employment” as a 4.5 percent unemployment rate. Obviously, employment for engineers is exceedingly good.
The demand for engineers and designers exceeds the supply. And recruitment is extremely competitive, especially on Long Island.
Mitch Maiman: Reaching hire.
As we all know, this is a very expensive place to live. And a talented engineer or designer can command very close to the same compensation in a lower-cost of living area. Another challenge is that traditional recruiting, either directly or using recruiting agencies, can be slow and expensive.
How can we handle this situation? One approach is to “build your own” new talent. This requires an investment, but it’s generally easier to find and compensate new grads and entry-level staff than to recruit experienced, top-tier professionals.
To be successful with this approach, it’s important to build relationships with Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, the New York Institute of Technology and other local universities. Keep your brand consistently front-and-center with the right students. Hire interns you’re most sure will be a great fit, in terms of talent, temperament and communications skills.
And pay them well. The best advertising is the word-of-mouth marketing you get from interns who speak enthusiastically about the cool things they’re doing at work.
Also be sure to hire staff that’s comfortable working remotely. This works especially well for senior-level professionals who can work efficiently without the need for frequent supervision or mentoring. At our company, we have several engineers and designers who live in other states; if an employment requirement was that they physically be on Long Island, we’d likely lose that talent and not benefit from the important skills they provide.
In the pre-COVID days, we’d periodically fly remote staff to our offices here for meetings, lab tests and close collaboration sessions. With an increasingly remote future workforce, some travel expenses will be required – but they’ll always beat the cost of not having the talent you need, when you need it.
Another, somewhat uglier strategy is to recruit locally. This is ugly because it involves luring engineers from other local companies. Money can help, but it’s rarely the main motivator to get an engineer to change jobs.
You have to offer the right kind of work or career-advancement opportunities. If we lose an engineer or designer to another local company, I feel like we failed to keep up – with compensation, or with providing the kind of interesting work that individual needed.
You can also consider hiring consulting firms to supplement your team. The right consultancy will already have staff in place, ready with the skillsets you need to fill your gaps. This can be effective for short-term projects and as part of a long-term strategy.
The tech-hiring market is tough on Long Island, especially with the talent holding all the cards. But having strategies to address these challenges can help companies land the right professionals.
Start by doing your best to retain your current team – do whatever you can to keep them happy and content. This may be the best tech-talent strategy yet.
Mitch Maiman is the cofounder and president of Hauppauge-based Intelligent Product Solutions, a subsidiary of Florida-based Forward Industries.
