[AbolishCSEU]

My twenty something liberal Obama voter colleague (with a stay at home wife and two young children) cited this tidbit of news which I'm thinking is as pumped up as the "jobs" numbers at the White Hut--Anybody care to debunk?

Largest IT employment gains in four years reported

Network World (US) The nation's employment outlook for IT professionals has suddenly surged, gaining 18,200 jobs, the largest monthly increase since 2008, according to tech employment-research firm Foote Partners.

The nation's employment outlook for IT professionals has suddenly surged, gaining 18,200 jobs, the largest monthly increase since 2008, according to tech employment-research firm Foote Partners.

Java developer most difficult tech job to fill: Survey

In July, 4,900 new IT jobs were added in two job segments, telecommunications, and separately "data processing, hosting and related services," Foote Partners said today. Also added were 13,300 other jobs in sectors called "management and technical consulting services" and "computer systems design/related services." The firm says these last two categories, with a combined total of 242,000 jobs added in the past 24 months, have seen solid growth even in the midst of the nation's general economic malaise.

"The overall employment situation in the U.S. is lackluster, in fact this is the fifth consecutive month of subpar results," says David Foote, CEO at Foote Partners, which has been tracking IT labor trends since 1997. Today's findings are based on Foote's analysis of the July 2012 U.S. employment numbers from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. "But the fact that more than 18,000 new jobs were created last month for people with significant IT skills and experience and nearly 57,000 new jobs added in the past three months is incredibly good news."

While his remarks were upbeat, Foote also adds that not all IT workers are equally benefiting from the jobs expansion. "Many companies are looking for superstars and workers we refer to as 'walking Swiss Army knives' those with the right mix of technology, business and people skills to handle some very tough jobs." Foote says trends that matter include adoption of cloud computing, mobile platforms, and Big Data analytics, among other technologies.

[Mercat]

Our son is close to being a walking Swiss Army knife with good people skills, good tech skills and a college degree. He just got a good job in the industry. So thankful.

[TSgt]

Many companies are looking for superstars and workers we refer to as 'walking Swiss Army knives' those with the right mix of technology, business and people skills to handle some very tough jobs.

Spot-on! I'm hiring and that basically describes the A-player I need!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Government needs tens of thousands of programmers to build the systems needed to track down healthcare deadbeats and pass their info to the new swarms of IRS agents coming to “eat out their substance.” More job openings to open soon.

[tbw2]

Someone has to put together the government’s health exchange websites. /sarc
A new iPhone is coming out. Software and devices have to be upgraded for that. Defense contractors who need to update software and websites are listing jobs now to fill with the October 1 fiscal year.
And schools now need better IT folks. A common google search term is “games that are not blocked at school” and other ways to get around school filters. School is hiring. Some districts need firewall and tech support for that.

[Free America52]

I just got laid off last month from a supposedly fast growing anslytics software company, so no, I’m not buying it.

[AU72]

Obama didn’t create those jobs, somebody else did that.

[napscoordinator]

I heard that their is a shortage of Engineers too...not sure if true but that seems to be the talk.

[wbill]

Here in the SE, the developer market is hot right now. If you speak a few (computer) languages or SQL, fluently, you're a hot commodity. Like pre-Y2K hot. (In '98 and '99, I had headhunters chasing me through parking lots. I felt like a rock star. :-) )

Infrastructure is medicore. Not great, but there is a little movement. Lots of contract work, not much for permanent positions.

The past few weeks, I've heard a lot of requests for Unix people. Dunno what's moving that market, I'd think that it was pretty static.

[wally_bert]

Bookmark

[IronJack]

If you want to know how well the US IT sector is doing, ask the people who know: the Indians.

[JimRed]

How many of those 18K+ jobs were gub’mint jobs? They shouldn’t count, because they create no wealth, just suck on the system.

[bobcat62]

I’m not sure the nerds over at Slashdot agree with the claim:

http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/08/07/203204/report-cites-highest-it-job-growth-in-4-years

[drunknsage]

Im curious about how many of these are contracts (windows 7 deployments) or H1B workers. A ton of places are upgrading their OS to Win7. Unfortunately its short term work. (at least its something)

IT work is getting more and more difficult these days. Companies dont want to hire, dont want to train, and dont want to properly invest in technology. I am currently looking for a perm position in Houston and it’s tough. Im in the sys admin area and companies are looking for skillsets that are rare / hard to find. A decade of pillaging good people from big companies hasnt helped the new guys.

Harley Davidson just gave the boot to their entire IT staff and outsourced the work to a company notorious for exploiting the H1B system. They keep the jobs here but they bring in low cost people from places like India for half the pay of what American workers are used to.

http://news.dice.com/2012/07/30/harley-davidson-infosys/

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Many companies are looking for superstars and workers we refer to as 'walking Swiss Army knives' those with the right mix of technology, business and people skills to handle some very tough jobs.

Remind you of anyone we know?