System administrators and network managers are hardest to find

The study finds 27.9% of respondents citing the former and 22.7% the latter – while telecommunications managers are the easies to find, with only 7.1% indicating problems engaging appropriate talent. Ipswitch CIO Azmi Jafarey points to the fact that system administrators and network managers are key to mitigating network downtime and taking remedial action in time to prevent loss of availability and to ensure business continuity. "System administrators and network managers are often the unsung heroes of IT. In many cases, especially among SMEs, the network is the business," states Jafarey. "After all, the network enables collaboration, communication, and commerce – everything that helps an organisation to run and grow. It is paramount that organisations invest more in training and skills development to ensure that [they] have the expertise to transfer to new recruits." Ipswitch's survey shows IT managers in the third most difficult to recruit slot (17.2% of respondents), followed by software developers (14.6%) and program analysts (10.4%).