IDC is reporting that a huge networking skills gap is proving troublesome to enterprises - but presents a huge opportunity for IT professionals.

Six hundred thousand IT workers were needed to install, configure, manage and secure networks in North America in 2007, 14% of the total IT workforce. Yet another 180,000 IT pros with networking skills will have to be added by 2011 to keep up with several changes that are transforming the role of the network, IDC reports in research sponsored by the Cisco Learning Institute.

The network is becoming more critical to allowing innovation and enabling business to be conducted across great distances. Increased focus on security, regulatory requirements, and the growing complexity of networks with converged voice, data and video traffic are factors driving up demand for networking professionals, IDC says.

The opportunity for IT pros lies in IDC’s estimate that 8% of the total demand for networking professionals cannot be met by the current supply.

“The projected supply of skilled networking workers is not expected to keep pace with demand, resulting in an 8% gap, or 60,000 full-time skilled workers each year over the next three years,” Cisco notes in an accompanying press release.

Wireless networking skills are going to be in high demand, IDC says.

“Wireless networking skills will have the highest growth and the greatest skill gap percentage of all the specialties we examined,” IDC reports. “By 2011, there will be a demand for nearly 45,000 IT professionals with wireless networking skills, nearly 132% growth from 2007. At the same time, only about 28,000 such professionals will be available in North America. This leaves a gap of nearly 38% of demand.”

Services vendors will try to meet this demand by expanding their offerings. But IT pros with the proper skills will see their salaries rise, IDC says. In response, IT workers are likely to pursue training in wireless networking technologies.

It turns out that there isn’t much excess demand for network security skills today – but that could change. The gap between supply and demand was 2% in 2007. “Because security has been a magnet for skilled workers for the past five to seven years, workers have moved to network security from other areas,” IDC notes.

Jon Brodkin is senior writer at Network World.