[Mind-numbed Robot]

What you see are companies hiring new engineers right out of school because although, they will initially be an apprentice, their salaries are much lower than the senior engineers who have 10 years of experience or more. Take a look at how many engineers there are over fifty. Their numbers are low because their salaries are high and companies look for younger engineers, outsourced engineers or insourced engineers to replace them to save money.

Right. Programming is programming no matter who it is done by. Now that some structure (Structured analysis, object oriented design, new languages, etc.) has finally been adopted by the software and IT profession there is no need to pay twice as much for the same thing. Unless a programmer has upgraded himself to a system analyst, designer or systems engineer his usefulness has been surpassed.

Another factor that works against the older worker is the escalating cost of healthcare and retirements benefits. The older workers cost more than younger workers in these programs for obvious reasons. CFO's and other bottomline managers cut the financial fat.

[grey_whiskers]

Check out my first and second vanities on outsourcing; and also this vanity on the long-term picture of the U.S. economy.

Cheers!

[ClaireSolt]

Why should the "older worker" cost more than the better worker? And why should the government be required to compensate for the bad and lazy decisions of the poor worker? In fact, many people advance and improve with age and their employers regard them as indispensible. Those who do not are the ones to go.