Tech Buzz Blog

It is a great time to be an app developer. While the national unemployment rate is at 9.1 percent, the Facebook App Economy is thriving and growing.

A recent study by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business found that the Facebook App Economy has added at least 182,000 new jobs and contributed more than $12.9 billion in wages and benefits to the U.S. economy this year. This is especially impressive considering that Facebook itself employs only about 2,000 people.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States added 54,000 jobs in May following gains that averaged 220,000 over the prior three months. May’s unemployment rate rose very slightly, from 8.8% to 9.1%. Most job gains occurred in professional and business services, mining, and health care.

Local government employment rates have continued to trend down, but at rates which are being surpassed by the growth of the private sector.

According to a study done by the tech financing group infoDev, online and virtual economies were worth around $3 billion as of 2009. The study titled “Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy” revealed that more than 100,000 workers in India and China make their livings through online gaming and micro-tasking.

Overseas employers run a fascinating service: gaming-service retail companies employ a staff of gamers to work for up to 60 hours a week playing massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). Gamers are employed to play games like World of Warcraft and amass virtual currency that the company then sells to wealthy foreigners. While this tactic is against the rules of many MMORPGs (World of Warcraft included), it is an appealing market for those who don’t have time to earn virtual currency for themselves.

Finding top talent can be difficult, and often keeping employees can be a challenge as well. Understanding what drives your work force can help both retention and productivity. A study done by economists at MIT helped illuminate what motivates employees.

Participants in the study were given a set of challenges, and were offered higher cash reward for better performance. The results were surprising:

Employers are often inclined to hire locally, and that's an understandable instinct. It's easy to meet candidates and assess whether or not he or she would fit into the corporate culture. It's not that employers aren't interested in finding the most aggressively talented person for the job—it has more to do with the power of human interaction. Meeting a candidate humanizes them in a way their resume can't, and an interview often reveals a candidate's strengths and weaknesses immediately.

Finding the top IT talent in the country requires both research, vetting, and agility. If an employer is married to the idea of meeting someone for a desk side Q&A, they're seriously limiting their own talent resources.