C.O. tech companies look to hire hundreds in 2018

Good news if you plan on job hunting in 2018 — it looks like many new tech jobs will be available in Central Oregon.

The Technology Association of Oregon put out a survey last month to Central Oregon tech companies, asking about their hiring plans.

The results show they’re looking to hire more than 800 employees in 2018, 450 of whom would work specifically in the tech sector, mainly as web and software developers. Only 29 of the 122 tech employers in the region responded to the survey, so that number could end up being a lot higher.

The CEO of one of the companies said the numbers are beyond what he expected.

“Any forecast we had before is blown out of the water — I mean, everything is tech now,” Five Talent CEO Preston Callicott said Tuesday. “Les Schwab is a tire company, but they’re a tech company that sells tires. Everyone has tech embedded in their companies, so the requirement for talent has just gone through the roof.”

Most of the new hires probably will have to come from out of town, since there’s a shortage of tech-savvy graduates coming out of Central Oregon, even considering OSU-Cascades’ computer science program.

“Their computer science program is wonderful, but we’re not getting the volume that we need — graduates — to meet the demand in the private sector,” East Cascades Workforce Investment Board director Heather Ficht said. “So we needed to think of innovative ways in order to meet that need.”

One new attempt at a solution is Apprenti, which is a 40 hour per-week training course that lasts about six months. It’s starting in 2018, with the goal of creating a bigger tech pipeline filled with native Central Oregonians.

One question that may come to mind with the news of hundreds of new people moving into Bend is — where will they live? After all, the housing market in Bend has already hurt hiring in other industries.

“I hear from businesses that are struggling with attracting workers from out of town, even for good-paying jobs, because of the limitations on housing availability,” city of Bend Business Advocate Ben Hemson said. “But I think maybe we’re starting to turn the corner. There are some indicators that say it’s happening.”