IT Job Stats: Grim, But Some Hopeful Signs

[OhioChick]

Fewer jobs were lost in bellwether IT job segments in June than in May.

July 9, 2009 07:45 AM


IT employment did not escape unscathed the latest U.S. employment numbers for June.
Overall national employment reached 9.5% and nearly 470,000 jobs were lost -- but there was some encouraging news in the numbers for IT workers, according to an analysis released Wednesday by Foote Partners.

The IT workforce research firm noted that 1,800 fewer jobs were lost in bellwether IT job segments in June than in May, and one segment -- data processing/hosting/related services -- added 600 jobs after four consecutive months of job losses in the category.

"But I think the more positive story, and also the better indicator of overall performance in the IT workforce," said CEO David Foote, "is instead demand trends for specific categories of IT skills. The recession has had minimal impact on demand for IT skills in the areas such as architecture, business process, security, communications, e-commerce, and several ERP and infrastructure specializations."

However, tech workers in the management/technical consulting services segment and also those in the communications equipment segment lost total positions -- 1,100 and 2,100, respectively. At the same time, the computer and peripheral equipment category lost 900 fewer jobs in June than in May, "not exactly good news but certainly some encouragement," said Foote.

Foote observed that IT job security in these trying times depends more on the combinations of worker skills rather than the job or job title.

"Survivors," he said, "are the shrewd IT professionals who have always been the most aggressive and alert in directing their career development, managing to always be out front of the demand for skills. They may not even be the hardest workers, but they are certainly the most effective."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218401204

[ChromeFoundry]

1. So in other words...

"Survivors," he said, "are the shrewd IT professionals who have always been the most aggressive and alert in directing their career development, managing to always be out front of the demand for skills. They may not even be the hardest workers, but they are certainly the most effective."

The "Survivors" will be the ones willing to be the lowest paid.

[OhioChick]

2. Bingo. n/t

[babylonsister]

3. All possible good news welcome! I know, we have a long

way to go.

[marmar]

4. "Less Bad" is the new Good......

Sign of the times

[OhioChick]

7. You're right. Quite sad when you think about it. n/t

[Larkspur]

5. I just got some good news this week

My previous company has asked me to come back to help with the environment I once managed. It's a 3 month contract to start. Apparently, the environment has been unavailable for 2 weeks to some users and bad data exists for users of another application in the same environment. When they laid me off last year, they gave my duties to an H-1B visa contractor from India. He's a nice guy and I hold no grudges against him, but he only assisted me with managing 1 application in the environment I managed. He never learned the others or understood the data management process in this environment. He was primarily assigned to support another environment and to assist me with my environment on an upon request basis. When I got laid off, I only had 2 days to transfer my 10 years worth of knowledge of this environment to the H-1B visa contractor.

The end users of the environment spent $6 million adding new hardware to the environment but with bad data, the environment looks like a bad investment. So the business analyst on my environment kept telling the end users to rehire me to help them fix the problems with the environment. Last week I got a call from one of the end users and told me the process I need to go through to get rehired. I just completed the application today and provided I pass a back ground check, I'll be back to work at my old job. I'll be back as a contractor and who knows what will happen after that.

[OhioChick]

6. That's wonderful news, Larkspur!

:applause:

Hopefully, this ends up being a perm. position.

[ChromeFoundry]

8. Since you are now a contractor...

and they are not covering/offering benefits... Hopefully you will be earning more of a salary to help cover the last 3 mos. of accumulated bills. I am very happy to see that you will be back in the workforce. It still sickens me to see how companies treat 10-year veterans.

Best of luck Larkspur! :toast: