The demographic data collected through the surveys highlight areas of strength in the NYS workforce as well as some concerns with respect to future workforce development.

The State IT workforce is well-educated and very experienced. More than 90 percent have some college education and much of that education is concentrated in technical fields (more than one-third hold degrees in computer science, information science, or management information systems). In addition, about 16 percent of IT professionals hold current certifications. The workforce is also very experienced in both state government and agency missions, with long tenures in state service, mostly concentrated in one or two agencies.

Retirements among non-managerial IT professionals may be modest in number for the next three years, although nearly a quarter of IT managers and about one-third of the CIOs expect to retire within that time period. Retirement projections increase substantially for all three groups after 2009. The overall workforce profile indicates a substantial proportion will be eligible to retire in the next three years (especially among managers and executives) although the proportion of non-managerial IT professionals who actually plan to retire is rather modest (about 11 percent) between 2006 and 2009. The pace of retirement intentions for non-managerial IT professionals between 2006 and 2012 ranges from 1.7 percent planning to retire in 2006 to 3.9 percent in 2012, by which time more than 22 percent of today’s IT workers expect to have retired. Three-quarters of IT professionals and managers reported an interest in continuing to work for the State part-time after retirement.