Digital jobs growing in Lane County, Ore.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Lane County tech companies are on a hiring binge.

At least 50 companies in a local tech networking group are hiring, according to the Silicon Shire website.

Among those companies hiring is Symantec, which already has 1,400 employees in Springfield. The company currently has 90 openings, The Register Guard reported (https://is.gd/cpYNbb ).

While other businesses may be struggling to survive, local technology companies are struggling to meet demand for their products and services.

“When I think of the tech companies here in town that I’m familiar with … almost all of them are hiring,” said Cale Bruckner, vice president of Concentric Sky, a Web and mobile development firm based in downtown Eugene.

Concentric Sky has two openings, he said, “IDX, SheerID, AppNexus, Palo Alto Software - just about everyone, it seems (has openings), especially in the software sector of the tech industry here in Eugene.”

State Employment Department figures show more than 400 software, hardware, gaming, telecommunications and other firms classified as tech companies employ a total of more than 4,000 people in Lane County.

They say hiring qualified people is their biggest challenge. But local tech leaders are recruiting workers from outside the area, plus keeping an eye on local graduates.

“Hiring is a challenge everywhere, even in the company’s headquarters in New York it’s hard to find great people with the right skills,” said Pat McCarthy, senior vice president for product at AppNexus, a New York-based firm that developed a platform for real-time online advertising.

AppNexus recently opened a three-person office in downtown Eugene.

But the hiring challenge is not insurmountable, McCarthy said.

“Previously, I managed to build an office of 35 people (in Eugene) in a very similar business so it is indeed possible over time,” he said.

To try to help raise awareness of job opportunities, Bruckner recently put out a call for volunteer Silicon Shire “ambassadors.”

Jake Weatherly, CEO of rapidly growing startup SheerID, is among the ambassadors.

Weatherly said he sees the ambassadors’ role as helping to put Eugene on the map and to be proud of what differentiates Eugene.

“That’s a thing I’ve always found interesting about Eugene,” Weatherly said, “There are so many companies here that are under the radar because their target audience isn’t in their backyard. So they have offices in kind of weird locations without big signs, and they have high-octane teams reaching out to the world from Eugene, Oregon.”

With its emphasis on family and the outdoors, Eugene is especially appealing to tech professionals who are reaching the age where they want to have children, Bruckner said.

“It’s hard to do that in the Bay Area,” he said. “I think we have an opportunity to attract people from Seattle and the Bay Area who are attracted to the lifestyle we have here.”

Tech leaders say the community also offers seed capital, support organizations, business accelerators, networking groups and a growing number of shared work spaces.

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Information from: The Register-Guard, https://www.registerguard.com