Maybe one should look at the available talent base, er, the available able talent base.
I have heard there are plenty of jobs for experienced J2EE devs in the NYC area. You should have Struts, Spring, and Hibernate experience.
I am a C# developer and get calls from recruiters often. I also have SharePoint and SQL Server experience. I have done some J2EE Spring and DB2 as well. I like Microsoft because most companies I work with are using Office and Active Directory so it makes integrating applications pretty seamless.
I wouldn’t get into software development. Your job will eventually get shipped to India, or they will bring an Indian here to take your job.
Become a ‘network guy’ instead.(that’s what I did) The pay probably isn’t quite as good, and it’s likely a bit more stressful, but you will have a job.
The Indian national on H1B willing to work for a straight $35/hr will no benefits will get that job.
I CAN tell you want is very very big...and the only real hiring I see right now, though it's light:
1. Network Infrastructure/VoIP (Yes, AGAIN)
2. VMWare/VDI/Storage and datacenter virtualization...yes, including the virtualization of the desktop.
Services, services, services. Most small to - mid - sized...even large companies don't have a competent IT staff. It a money pit to them and they never see what is promised, by time or outcome. It's systemic.
The culture of "Business IT grew up on the notion that everything was "special to us" and we "need specialized solutions". BS...it's extraordinarily rare to see a "special requirement" that's real. However, internal IT, having convince business management of this un-truth are then able to fund projects costing $10s/mils and delivering jack after 5 years...and audits show 1/3 of the money went to training and seminars...1/4 went to the vendor selection/RFP process and another 10-15% wen to HW/SW combos that could not do the job.
Most of the rest of the money was eaten up by Project Status meetings, report generation etc.
The whole time the company could have gone to someone who knew what they were doing at got something that actually works for 1/2 the money od the "system" that is still on the drawing board.
Nobody, but NOBODY is stupidier than a IT manager that thinks he has it figured out.
That's where the money is kid...
I am one of the very best in Atlanta in C#.NET, ASP.NET, Javascripting, deployment considerations, and SQL, and I am now mastering Silverlight (after having mastered WCF).