U.S. expects drop in programming jobs, but gains in IT jobs overall

Computerworld ^ | Dec 22, 2015 | Patrick Thibodeau

[ConservingFreedom]

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says IT jobs will grow 12% over the next decade, except for programmers. That occupation will shrink as more work is shifted to lower wage countries, according to the government. [...]

Software developers, the largest occupational group in IT, which employs 1.11 million, will increase by 17% or 186,600, over this period.

Programmers are focused on coding and implementing requirements, and that's why they may be more susceptible to offshoring, in contrast to software developers who may be more engaged with the business, analyzing needs and collaborating with multiple parties. In IT occupations overall, the U.S. is predicting 488,500 new jobs, from 3.9 million to 4.4 million over the next 10 years. [...]

This data may become fodder in the debate over H-1B visas. The U.S., according to the National Science Foundation, awarded about 48,000 computer science bachelor degrees in 2012, which is roughly equal to the number of jobs per year that all computer occupations will grow by. [...]

About 36% of the people who work in IT do not have four-year college degrees, and of those who do, only 38% have a computer science or math degree, according to an Economic Policy Institute paper by Hal Salzman, a Rutgers University public policy professor, Daniel Kuehn, an adjunct economics professor at American University, and B. Lindsay Lowell, the director of policy studies at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University.

Salzman said he can't see how the demand for IT workers, outlined in the BLS data, justifies bills in Congress to increase the number of visa workers by 180,000 or more.

"The math doesn't seem to add up to support an increase at the magnitude provided in these new bills,"

[AU72]

My current contract is assigned to company in Mumbai and I’m listed as an ‘offshore’ resource.

[central_va]

Most people in Europe and elsewhere have no idea how brutal America is to make it in. They see all the TV shows and glamour. The average American handles more stress in a week than most Europeans do in a year.

GloBULLism just acerbates stress IMO. I'd like to see someone explain how any immigration helps the average American? How does gloBULLism help them?

[familyop]

"I worked in three industries over the last 25 years, and in all three cases I lost my job due the company going bankrupt, and then being sold to a foreign interest. And in all three interests, the demise of the company was fomented from within. Care to guess which three?"

Steel-related, electronics then software, perhaps? As for which side fomented demise decades ago, perception of that would depend on whether one was viewing from drunken, vain management or impulsive, youthful labor.

[csivils]

“Object oriented code libraries with reusable code modules will also decrease the need for NEW code”

You must be new to the profession, possibly either straight out of college or still in college.

[khelus]

And none of those jobs will go to White American males.

or white American females

[Freedom56v2]

Too bad we can’t offshore Congress.

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That’s funny—in this day and age, I need a good laugh every so often!

[Freedom56v2]

Freepers do not let your babies grown up to be programmers.

Programmers ain’t easy to love and they’re harder to hold And they’d rather give you a prototype than diamonds or gold Overweight neckbeards and old faded hoodies And each night begins a new day If you don’t understand him, an’ he don’t die young He’ll prob’ly just rant away

Freepers, don’t let your babies grow up to be programmers Don’t let ‘em use keyboards or hack on some stuff Let ‘em be doctors and lawyers and such Freepers don’t let your babies grow up to be programmers Cause they’ll never get job and they’re always alone because the third world has learned how to code

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Wow, that is really clever :)