According to technology job board Dice’s October report, there’s one particular tech talent now in short supply across the U.S.: Microsoft’s .NET. Job postings requiring .NET are up more than 25% year-over-year, the company says – faster growth than the total job postings on all of Dice.com.
In addition, 27% of the searches in Dice’s resume database involve those looking for .NET skills and an experience level of 0-3 years. 46% of searches were for those with 4-7 years experience in .NET, and 21% were looking for .NET developers with 8-10 years experience.
Why the shortage? Dice believes that developers are worrying that if they specialize in .NET development, they won’t be able to branch out to other platforms. They also aren’t paid as much as those who specialize in other areas. For example, .NET developers earn around $83,000 per year, but Java developers typically make more than $91,000.
However, Dice says that there are now over 10,000 jobs on its site requesting the skill set, and that if demand continues to outstrip supply, wages will adjust accordingly.
Dice isn’t the only outfit reporting increased interest in .NET talent. In September, WANTED Analytics, a source of real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace, reported similar trends. It found that .NET was one of the most commonly advertised job titles along with Java Developer, Web Developer, Sharepoint Developer, Web Designer, PHP Developer and J2ee Developer.