[null and void]

This is the "offical" unemployment rate.

It doesn't count under employed (burger flipping EE's), or engineers who have dropped off the radar as their benefits expired.

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[Fee]

I am glad that the IT workers suffered. They needed it. I remember in the 70's and 80's when blue collar workers were losing their jobs to cheaper overseas companies, they were told by their college educated counterparts that is what you get when you did not go to college. The IT workers were acting like typical yuppies. At that time they were young, able to capitalize on the office automation revolution and command the high salaries. They thought they were riding on the hitech wave of the future and had secured jobs, laughing at the ones who did not go to college. Unfortunately things started to change when these IT workers got older. At the age of 45 they were considered obsolete and were being replaced by younger workers who had the latest IT knowledge and lower salaries. The whole IT world fell apart when overseas Indian workers mastered the technology and were willing to work for 1/4 or 1/3 the US salaries. Now IT workers have tasted the bitter pill of being treated as a disposable commodity, they may finally come around and join their blue collar workers in pressuring our government to start looking at the social problems being created by "free trade", "globalism" and "immigration" and balance it against the narrow focus on "profits" only approach to economical/social policies.

[Seajay]

Regarding Computer Programmers :

DICE.COM - postings up to 29K from 18K one year ago (even taking into consideration the fact that they now advertise for phlebotomists, this is impressive).

In MHO, the problem of "offshoring" and H1Bs is simply that Americans do not have the "moxie" needed for what the market needs now. They have no idea what the Object paradigm is and were spoiled by the "bring your dog to work" culture of the dot com boom ...