Many positions have been filled locally, Stewart said. But for the more specialized jobs, he has had to cast a wide net. Searches are taking longer, according to technical placement agencies. Finding a higher-level tech manager can take eight to nine months. Part of the challenge of attracting people here, recruiters say, is that the Capital Region is not known as a high-tech center.
Prospective employees look for places with a concentration of companies and jobs.
The geographic center of the fiber-optics industry, for example, is in Ottawa. A few success stories create that critical mass. It's beginning to happen here, but it hasn't yet. You have to convince people this is a good place to be. But Stewart and others say the very success of those places has brought congestion, high housing prices and other drawbacks.