[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?

[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.

[stainlessbanner]

bttt

[.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.

[TLI]

SEPTEMBER 17, 2003 ( ) - DALLAS -- Unemployment for IT workers reached 6% this year, an "unprecedented" level for a profession that was once a sure path to a well-paying job, according to a new study that also found that foreign-born workers now account for a fifth of all IT employees in the U.S. The report also found that the percentage of laid-off foreign-born IT workers is slightly higher than for U.S.-born workers.

6%. HA! Last week the sunday paper had exactly two (2) IT jobs in the paper. 5-6 years ago there was about 800 - 1,000 listings.

Of course, back then the Apartment communities near the IT corridor up US-75 didn't have the scent of curie wafting through the air everyday. Shame it can't go back to steaks and the game. The money stayed in the neighborhood. I guess somebody figured Western Union was making too much money sending the pay back. So they just offshored all the jobs. Ya ought to hear the customers calling in nowadays cussin the "support" they get from "Name Brand Computing." First words out of their mouths? "Thanks God you speak real english!" Sad.

[Gritty]

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

H-1B Visas, Schmate-1B Visas!

They can't take all the the jobs away from us native Americans. We can always go flip hamburgers for a living. Oh, wait a minute, the illegal aliens are already doing that!

[Alberta's Child]

But the overall number of IT jobs has seen remarkable growth, tripling in the past 20 years, according to the CPST, which conducts labor force and educational research for a range of scientific organizations and companies. The IT labor force grew from 719,000 jobs in 1983 to 2.5 million at its peak in 2000.

Interesting item that many folks overlook. The number of jobs in the IT profession tripled at the same time the U.S. population rose by about 25%. I know it isn't any fun being unemployed, but when 150,000 of these jobs are lost in the last few years, I'd hardly consider it a catastrophic turn of events for the U.S. economy overall.

[ableChair]

This article is so laughable...and leftist. Gee, I guess I better get worried, being a C programmer and all, when the unemployment rate is a whopping 6%. After all, that means that if I suck as bad as a whopping 5% of every swinging you know what in the IT industry I'm in big trouble. I'd have to suck as bad as at least 6% of every warm body in IT before I'd be safe. I think the next line says it all:
IT unemployment rates were as low as 1.2% in 1997, shooting up to 4.3% in 2002.
If it was as high as 1.2% in 1997, that tells me a lot. People were getting hired back then if they could breathe! You wouldn't believe how many crazy stories I heard and saw back then. I can still, even in the economic downturn, churn out an offer in 3 weeks (in Denver). I can do it in 2 weeks in Atlanta. This article is rubbish and I have no idea why some people have such a hard time finding a job...never could figure that one out.

[Bob J]

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[eleni121]

The Coming Job Boom-almost here or here already?

http://www.matr.net/article-7929.html

[HamiltonJay]

The CAP should be no more than a few thousand, perhaps 10k annually for those FEW truly highly skilled workers who bring experience from overseas that cannot be found in US..... The whole system is a SCAM.

[scripter]

Don't know if you saw this, ping.

[Cacique]

ping