How Will Obamacare Affect IT Staffing?

DALLAS - Sept. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- As someone who has been in the IT consulting and staffing industry in the U.S. and Europe for over 24 years, I've been asked by many people about my thoughts on how Obamacare will affect the IT staffing industry as well as small businesses.

The cost of providing healthcare is a huge barrier for small businesses and with the Affordable Health Care Act likely to remain the law, you will see an increasing reluctance for small business owners to hire full-time employees, especially with IT placement. They will be more likely to hire part-workers and restrict their hours to (30 hours or less) in order not to be subject to the health care mandate. This is a trend that will not bode well for business owners or their employees. Small business owners already face many challenges in running a business. The new health care act will add another layer of complexity for many of these businesses. Additionally, due to the length of the new law, experts are still discovering nuances that create uncertainty for business owners in the future. Depending on the business, the company's ability to hire may be greatly affected with the Affordable Health Care Act.

In addition, I think that there will continue to be a shortage of skilled IT talent because I don't believe that we will have meaningful immigration reform that will result in visas being stapled to the college diplomas of math, engineering and science students who have come to the U.S. for their degrees. They are unfortunately going back to their countries in record numbers and we are failing to graduate U.S. citizens in sufficient numbers to address the demand.  IT recruiters (http://www.insourcegroup.com/) will have a difficult time finding IT talent. Consequently, firms will have a hard time to hire full-time or contract staff for IT and engineering positions.

My fear is that with a Democratic Senate, a Republican House and a Democratic president we will continue to see the same gridlock and failure to compromise that we have witnessed for the last four years. Failure to deal with budgetary issues will come at a price. If we don't, won't or are unable to, the markets will, and I fear they are running out of patience. If you're wondering what that means, take a look at what is going on in Europe as a preview.

Jim Thompson, CEO, The InSource Group

Jim Thompson is the CEO of The InSource Group and has more than 24 years of experience as a Consultant, Sales Executive and General Manager with various technology companies in the U.S. and Europe. The InSource Group is Dallas IT staffing (http://www.insourcegroup.com/) company that engages with companies to provide a complete spectrum of flexible solutions for their IT needs, including contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire options.For information on IT Jobs in Dallas, please visit: http://www.insourcegroup.com/dallas-it-jobs