The number of job openings in the cloud computing industry is growing so rapidly that there aren't enough qualified people available to fill the positions, according to an analysis of hiring trends by Wanted Analytics.
There were 5,000 jobs posted online related to cloud technology last month -- that represents a 92% increase from the same month last year and a more than fourfold increase from the same month in 2010.
"With the demand for cloud skills growing so quickly, the gap between hiring demand and talent supply across the United States is getting larger and causing more difficulties in sourcing candidates," the report said.
[Related reading: "What the Cloud Really Means for Your IT Job"]
Most of the cloud jobs are available at service providers. According to Wanted Analytics, VMware posted the most jobs last month, with 360 openings. Microsoft had the second most, with 230, while Amazon.com, URS Corp. and Google rounded out the top five.
Cloud computing professionals that are most in demand are those with technical skills, such as software engineers, systems engineers and network administrators.
But not all of the cloud-related job openings require tech skills. The leading nontechnical jobs that required some knowledge of the cloud included marketing managers, sales managers, management analytics specialists and financial analysts. The employers seeking to fill those positions tended to be involved in marketing cloud services or marketing a cloud-based offering, said Carolyn Menz of Wanted Analytics.
San Jose is the top metropolitan market for cloud jobs, with more than 900 cloud postings last month, up 144% compared to the same month last year. Seattle, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York are other hotbeds for cloud jobs.
San Francisco is the toughest place for employers that want to hire people with cloud skills, according to Wanted Analytics. It took businesses in that market eight weeks to fill a position. The research firm said that statistic suggests that there aren't enough talented workers to fill all of the available jobs. In middle-market locales, such as Tucson, Ariz., Madison, Wis., and Charlottesville, Va., it took only 5.5 weeks to fill a cloud-related job, which is faster than the national average, Wanted Analytics found.
Cloud is one of the hottest markets Wanted Analytics tracks. The firm analyzes trends in the labor market by studying data such as job postings from online job search engines, corporate Web pages and other sources.
In other findings, Wanted Analytics noted that demand for video game developers rose 40% compared to last year during the two months ending in March. Meanwhile, demand for privacy officers increased 56% in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period a year earlier, and robotics job postings were up 44% year-over-year in January.
This article originally appeared on NetworkWorld.com. Network World staff writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social media. His email address is BButler@nww.com, and you can find him on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.
Read more about cloud computing on Network World's Cloud Computing section.
This story, "Talent pool can't meet skyrocketing demand for cloud skills" was originally published by Network World.