Expedia Confirms Seattle Move, Will Buy Amgen Campus for $229M, Relocate from Bellevue by 2018

GeekWire | Todd Bishop | Apr. 2

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/expedia-confirms-seattle-move/

“It’s a big move, literally. The company, founded in the 1990s as a Microsoft spin-off, employs about 3,000 people in the Seattle region, out of approximately 15,000 people worldwide. One of the biggest challenges will be a tougher commute for many of Expedia’s employees, especially those on the Eastside.”

 

These Cities Have the Most High-skilled Foreigners

CNN Money | Sara Ashley O’Brien | Apr. 2

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/02/technology/h1b-approvals/

“On Wednesday, the application period for H-1B visas opened up, but there’s an annual quota of 85,000. If the demand during the first week exceeds the cap — last year there were 172,500 applications — the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services dolls out the visas at random via a lottery system. The report looked at H-1B visa recipients in 2013, the first year that the lottery system was used since the recession and the only year that the USCIS has released data for.”

 

Information Security Jobs Unfilled as Labor Pains Grow

Tech Target | Alan R. Earls | Apr. 1

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/feature/Information-security-jobs-unfilled-as-labor-pains-grow

“There is a hiring crisis in cybersecurity. Many organizations are desperate to find qualified security professionals and fill key staff positions. Consider this from ISACA: According to the 2015 Global Cybersecurity Status Report, which surveyed more than 3,400 ISACA members in January, 92% of those hiring cybersecurity professionals this year say it will be difficult to find skilled candidates.”

 

Microsoft Technology Gives Seattle 5,000 Times Faster Public WiFi

Engadget | Steve Dent | Mar. 31

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/31/microsoft-seattle-center-wifi/

“The city’s biggest patron has installed a new WiFi service at the Seattle Center that uses new technology to blow away the previous system’s speed and capacity. The installation is a pilot program for Microsoft Research’s white space tech that harnesses long-range, wall-penetrating TV signals. Along with quadruple the access points, the technology gives the Seattle Center public WiFi speeds up to 5,000 times faster, letting you Skype, Vine and Meerkat to your heart’s content.”

 

A Big, Untapped Pool of Potential Tech Talent

Fortune | Anne Fisher | Mar. 30

http://fortune.com/2015/03/30/tech-talent-workers/

“Although about 60% of the juniors and seniors interviewed by the researchers said they aspire to a four-year degree, the odds are stacked against them. The study points out that, among students who were born in the 1980s living in households at the bottom quarter of income earners, fewer than one in three (29%) enroll in college by the age of 19 — and, of that small group, only 32% graduate by age 25 with a bachelor’s degree.”