Study: IT worker unemployment at 'unprecedented' levels

Computer World ^ | SEPTEMBER 17, 2003 | Patrick Thibodeau

[lelio]

Unemployment for IT workers reached 6% this year

Wow, where is it that low? Around here you go to the user group meetings and half the people are out of work -- before they were all employed.

[Mears]

Shocking,absolutely shocking!

Now let's all go to New Delhi and Calcutta and see how things are there.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Good parents don't let their kids grow up to be coders.

[ChemistCat]

Okay, how much of this is because people flocked to get degrees in a field that was "sure employment"--to the point where there is a glut? I know IT has taken some major hits and outsourcing, but the bandwagon effect surely had a bigger effect.

People need to be savvy when they seek a career, and pay attention to trends. If you try to go on the path most travelled, don't be surprised if you're part of a hungry crowd.

What this country REALLY needs is a good free-lance digital camera repair cottage industry...but you can't GET trained in that stuff.

[Servant of the 9]

Until a dozen years ago a 6% unemployment rate was considered the irreducable minimum. That much unemployment was thought to be the play in the system that allowed people to change jobs.

During the Bubble Economy, which was not a sustainable enviorenment, unemployment rates went lower.

Because everything about computers was new and growing, unemployement levels were lower than in an established profession.

Computers are no longer "new" and the bubble has burst. 6% or 7% unemployment is relatively low and normal.
Get used to it.

So9

[cake_crumb]

The popping of the artificial Clinton tech bubble COULDN'T have had anything to do with it...it HAS to be Bush's fault. Everything ELSE is, right?

[zip]

One question - what's an IT?

[BrooklynGOP]

...found that foreign-born workers now account for a fifth of all IT employees in the U.S.

That's a confusing statement. I am foreign born, but I am a citizen. Am I included in that statistic?

[Salo]

Information Technology - programmers, system admins, network admins, phbs.....

[Common Tator]

Computer systems are reaching maturity. I can't think of a thing that is Office 2003 that I need or use, that was not in Office 97.

Two or three years ago there was a huge number of 1996 1997 era machines on the used market. Finding used machines from 1999 & 2000 is a lot harder. Companies are keeping them longer and using the same software. Old software that the employees know running on older reliable hardware requires far less support.

Large categories of software including database and accounting software does not need to be updated.

Companies are going to buy new machines and software when it makes business sense. Just like they buy desks, office furniture, and air conditioners... they are going to do it when they need the stuff.

They are also discovering they don't need nearly as many people as they thought they did.

Being in I.T. today is like being in the TV repair busness in the 1950's. Get out!!! The industry is going to die from lack of need.

[Revolting cat!]

what's an IT?

An eye tee:

[stainlessbanner]

bttt

[pageonetoo]

throw away computers, cameras, and other modern technologies are all going to be getting cheaper, faster, and easier to use...
look at the Blackberry, a tool, and a cellphone, which on most networks, is always on, gets your email, and allows you to reply... NOW!
why do you need a desktop, linked to a network, when you can be anywhere taking care of business!
IT'ers have the most problems removing all the games installed by the users! (can anyone say Solitaire?)

[w1andsodidwe]

Also, you can't just do one thing. I have been in the Idustry for 25 years. I can write mainframe IBM and Unisys Cobol, I can also build and manage a Citrix Metaframe server, manage a flock of outside salesmen and their laptops, Manage and code a Powerpoint Sales system, write VBA code to automate excel spreadsheets, maintain 3 corporate web sites, etc.

I could go on and on with all the different things I can do in the IT world. Too many people are specialist. "Well I can only write Progress Code on a Unix box" is a bad attitude.

[Gorzaloon]

The popping of the artificial Clinton tech bubble COULDN'T have had anything to do with it...it HAS to be Bush's fault. Everything ELSE is, right?

f*ckedcompnay.com chronicled the demise of the dot.nothings as it was happening. Fooseball, Aeron chairs, free spring water, and 100-hour weeks to run a website; Something that many bright 14-year-olds do as a hobby.

The first thing that would happen when the hapless investors dumped money on a startup was that everyone hired someone to do their job. They in turn did likewise.

When Netscape started things with their IPO, I used to argue, "OK, they have a product they give away free, have no sales and no business plan. How are they possibly worth $150 million?"

Yes, I missed the opportunity to treble my money based on what amounted to an Albanian Pyramid Scam, and also missed the opportunity of losing it all.

There are still good IT Jobs. Heavens knows, the ones I still see working at my place cannot possibly be an example! There MUST be lots of good ones out there who would be grateful for a stable real job. Maybe the company does not want to pay anything for an "Overhead" department, but for whatever reason, I am confident that surely there are many IT jobs around if we could ever get the embedded bad ones to just go home.

I do know people from some of these startups. One I know left a Fortune 500 to get a piece of the action. It did not last long, and was based on a stupid idea, and briefly flourished because there were a few really stupid investors left.

So in all honesty, when we hear of the loss of all the IT jobs, many were not real jobs to begin with. The recent grads they hired, including a few friends and relatives of mine, had not the faintest idea what a workday was in the first place, and simply knew no better. Of COURSE they worked nights, weekends and holidays. Of COURSE the Nice Company, to lighten their burden, installed pool and ping pong tables in recognition of the fact that the kids were giving up their lives and marriages.

The whole era was a shameful episode.

[stainlessbanner]

The industry is going to die from lack of need.

We are just turning the dime on information technology. There is much more out there than Microsoft's quarterly releases - that's a marketing plan. Digital convergence is happening everywhere - I really don't see it stopping.

However, there is a case to be made that technology as a competitive advantage is no longer. For example - having the latest release of a software product or even having a website (online purchasing) does not give one an edge on his/her competition.

The bigger issue is with the reduction of manufacturing in America, what are we left with? We hear alot about a "service-oriented" market, but I'm not convinced. Even help desk and call center services are being outsourced to India, Ireland, Mexico, etc. Just my .02

[TopQuark]

...it HAS to be Bush's fault.

No. But it wasn't Clinton's either.

[.cnI redruM]

I sometimes think computer softwear has become user friendly to the point that eliminates the need for a lot of these people. I can do things with databases and spreadsheets now using macroes that used to require some fairly annoying VB code to knock out.

The introduction of the canned subroutine and the increasing sophistication of these modules and applets are allowing someone to write a fairly impressive set of code once and have it implemented under different environmental conditions about a million times.

In a sense, programmers are being done in by the increased functionality of the machines they program.

[Glenn]

People need to be savvy when they seek a career, and pay attention to trends. If you try to go on the path most travelled, don't be surprised if you're part of a hungry crowd.

Right. Just get out the old crystal ball 25 years ago.

You're gloating is quite annoying.