Project is a tactic within HIT in the CLE Regional Talent Initiative

*Release via the BioEnterprise

LinkedIn, which operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 500 million members in over 200 countries and territories, has teamed up with BioEnterprise, the City of Cleveland, Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga County to provide data, analysis, and market research on the talent flows of software developers, data scientists, data analysts and other computer science positions within the Northeast Ohio health IT sector. Supported by the Cleveland Foundation, the analysis will ultimately inform policy, educational curriculum, community programming and other talent alignment strategies within this regional growth sector.

The bioscience cluster is a primary growth engine reviving the Northeast Ohio economy. Within the bioscience cluster, the health IT industry is flourishing, creating hundreds of new jobs each year. However, an acute shortage of qualified local talent is a major barrier to growth.

“One of the critical limiting factors to growth in Northeast Ohio’s bioscience industry today is the availability of health IT talent,” explained Aram Nerpouni, BioEnterprise President and CEO. “Thriving health IT companies are hindered by the dearth of software developers and data scientists. The LinkedIn project should provide meaningful data and analysis to inform how we address this challenge.”

With the support of the Cleveland Foundation, BioEnterprise launched HIT in the CLE in 2015 to address the regional computer science and data science talent gap. The Initiative aims to grow and diversify the Northeast Ohio health IT talent pipeline to support a vibrant health IT industry.

“We felt it was crucial to partner with BioEnterprise to begin addressing the demand-supply gap in health IT and to deeply engage businesses to expand the talent pipeline,” said Shilpa Kedar, Cleveland Foundation Program Director for Economic Development. “LinkedIn’s involvement with HIT in the CLE is a tremendous win for the region and we anticipate that this work will prove to be extraordinarily beneficial.”

The LinkedIn project is an important tactic within the larger HIT in the CLE talent strategy. The effort aspires to provide insights into the education and experience of people currently employed in the regional health IT sector, pathways for securing regional health IT positions, and institutions from which the local sector most successfully attracts qualified talent. The insights discovered through the analysis may surface gaps and barriers in the local health IT talent pipeline and help inform strategy for addressing these important talent issues.

“At LinkedIn, our vision is to create economic opportunity for every worker,” said LinkedIn U.S. Head of Policy Nicole Isaac. “We’re excited to use the Economic Graph – a digital map of the global economy that when complete will include every member of the global workforce and their skills, all open jobs, all employers, and all educational institutions – to provide the City of Cleveland with a more holistic view of the computer science and data science skills local employers need, the skills its workers have and the disconnect between the two. The City can use those insights to create a stronger IT talent pipeline, and grow its IT industry.”

“Making our workforce a competitive advantage, which includes understanding our gaps as well as opportunities is a crucial strategic focus,” said Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish. “We know that the strength of our healthcare is a great advantage and we believe that the bioscience cluster will drive a lot of our job growth in the coming years. LinkedIn’s contribution to help inform and accelerate that growth is a welcome addition to the HIT in the CLE effort.”

Data provided by BioEnterprise and LinkedIn will be pulled throughout the summer. Ongoing analysis will take place through the summer and findings are expected in the fall.

“Cleveland is a City with a growing health research and information technology economy from the unseen power of the 100 gig fiber network along the Health-Tech Corridor and the health care research institutions within our community,” said Mayor Frank G. Jackson. “I welcome the opportunity for the City of Cleveland to collaborate with LinkedIn to provide research and data on the talent that is relocating to Cleveland and drawing talent to join the workforce here.”