The post-college job search is never easy, and in a state still facing tough economic times, many students at Grand Valley State University can feel the apprehension with every step closer to their graduation dates. However, GVSU students looking for a job in the technology field may have a little less to worry about.

A recent report by dice.com, an employment website for technology professionals, stated the metro Detroit area is the fastest-growing metro area for technology jobs in the country. According to the report, the city of Detroit has more than 800 tech positions available on any given day.

Tom Silver, senior vice president-North America of Dice, said it is a result of the recent economic downturn that Michigan is seeing a rise in the tech field, and the jobs are a sign of the state’s economic recovery.

“I think that if you go back a couple of years ago, perhaps into 2008-2009, I think that Detroit really took a pretty big hit in terms of the impact of the downturn in the overall economy and since it went down amongst I think amongst some of the hardest, it’s not surprising to see it coming back perhaps amongst some of the fastest,” he said.

From the previous year, Detroit grew by 101 percent in terms of fastest growing metro areas, according to the Dice report. Technology professionals in Detroit make $71,444 per year, which is a 2-percent increase from 2010.

Tom Demmon, the associate director of career services at GVSU, said he thinks tech jobs are increasing in Michigan because the need for technology has increased as well.

“I think they’ve been somewhat on the rise since August of 2009 quite frankly, and I think that that’s just a trend that’s not going away,” he said. “I think that’s because we have needs for technology in the goods and services that our citizens demand and are asking for and it’s getting more of a demand rather than less.”

Silver said along with the job availability increase, certain skills that surround management and operating systems are rising in demand as well.

And just like the state of Michigan and arguably the world, GVSU is seeing a technology boom. Among the developments include an updated GVSU Mobile App for Android. Updated with a new user interface, the updated app includes features that allow students to find books from the library and search the events calender at the tip of their fingers. Additionally, the university as been in discussion about the use of Apple iPads in the library next year. The meetings are a part of an iPad evaluation project where library faculty are evaluating the iPad under three areas of criteria – as a personal productivity device, an e-reader and as a learning and research device – to decide whether it could be a useful tool to integrate into GVSU libraries.

“Our group is primarily concerned with assessing whether or not the iPad is a tool that we feel our students would appreciate if we circulate them and they can use it to do research with,” said Brian Merry, head of access services and member of the learning and research group for the project. Carlos Rodriguez, associate dean of Technology and Information Services, said they are hoping to see some results from the evaluation by next fall.

“We started this in February,” he said. “We’re hoping to have some initial findings or experiences documented as far as how the iPad works as a personal productivity, e-text and research learning tool sometime in the fall, early-late fall.”

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