Posted on 09/18/2003 4:03:48 PM PDT by Mini-14
About 150,000 IT positions were lost in 2001 and 2002
SEPTEMBER 17, 2003
The study, which was presented at a congressional forum today by the Washington-based nonprofit group Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST), affirms what IT managers have seen in response to help-wanted ads. "I'm sure the number is 6% or higher," said Michael Russo, a data center manager at Wyeth, a Madison, N.J.-based pharmaceuticals giant.
A recent third-shift job in the company's operational data center drew 168 applicants. "There are a lot of people who are out of work," Russo said.
Randy Rosenthal, manager of computer operations at Southwest Securities Group Inc. in Dallas, has seen the same trend: highly qualified people with multiple degrees applying for jobs IT managers once had trouble filling. "That tells me that 6% has hit the IT area pretty hard," he said.
About 150,000 IT positions were lost in 2001 and 2002, about two-thirds of them in programming, the report said.
Two years ago, Phoenix-based water and electric utility Salt River Project had an open position for an operations analyst and received about 15 applications; last year, it posted a similar position and had 50 applicants. This year the 800,000-customer utility has a hiring freeze, said operations manager Dewayne Nelsen.
There was a sense of grim resignation about the latest report among some IT managers at a conference held here by AFCOM, an Orange, Calif.-based data center managers user group.
Several IT managers, some requesting that their names not be used, told of data center consolidations that led to layoffs or offshore plans. For the future, automation improvements and the development of "self-healing" applications will also hurt some IT career paths. The career advice from one IT manager was to avoid the technical aspects of the profession and focus more on IT management training.
IT unemployment rates were as low as 1.2% in 1997, shooting up to 4.3% in 2002.
But the overall number of IT jobs has seen remarkable growth, tripling in the past 20 years, according to the CPST, which conducts labor force and educational research for a range of scientific organizations and companies. The IT labor force grew from 719,000 jobs in 1983 to 2.5 million at its peak in 2000.
With the growth of IT came an increasing reliance upon foreign workers. This increase was facilitated by legislation expanding the use of H-1B visas, which allow skilled foreign workers to take jobs in the U.S. for up to six years. A cap of 195,000 on the number of visas that can be issued has been in place for each of the past three years, but the cap will drop to 65,000 on Oct. 1. L-1 visas, which allow companies to transfer foreign employees into the U.S., have tripled in use.
The report, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York and the United Engineering Foundation, an umbrella organization for engineering groups, draws no firm conclusion on the offshore outsourcing trend. But it recognizes predictions made by analyst firms, including Gartner Inc., which in July estimated that 10% of all U.S. professional jobs in IT services companies would be transferred overseas, along with 5% of IT positions in other businesses.
Long term, the report says more research is needed on the effects of offshore outsourcing and the workforce issues raised by it: "Can the U.S. continue to be a prime market for the rest of the world if it is a stronghold for neither manufacturing nor technical services?" the report asks. "What are the long-run implications of these trends for American standards of living?"
The CPST report concludes that while the job market for IT professionals has weakened, it remains sizable.
"For the near run, normal turnover alone will generate opportunities for people who are determined to work in the field," the report said. "The long-run outlook is more problematic. The United States does not lack, either now or in the foreseeable future, sufficient numbers of capable people who would like to work in IT. But those people may not be willing to conclude that long-run demands for their services will be good enough to support IT as a sensible career choice."
Most farmers are probably sole proprietors or partnerships.
These "workers" are not here for the benefit of the general public, they are here for the benefit of corporations.
The point of my comment was that the benefits of the corporatons accrue to (i) owners, through profits; (ii) employess, through wages, pensions, and benefits, and (iii) communities, through philantropic acts of the firms.
If you talk about welfare, you should talk about the impact on the above-listed entities. I repeat: there is no such thing as corporate welfare; it's been invented by the leftists to make you angry.
Now, if you look at corporations, you will find that the "rich" own a very minor part of them. Most of us own our corporations -- though pension funds, 401Ks, etc. That is to whom the benefits received by the companies go.
This includes hiring foreign workers. If XYX Company hires an illegal alien (no, I do not condone that), YOU benefit from that through 401K and your pension fund, as well as the taxes paid on its profit by the corporation. When that alien educates his kid in school for which you pay, YOU loose. As you can see now, for YOU there are both pluses and minuses.
Whatever YOUR pluses and minuses are, they have nothing to do with corporations.
I do not blame you for throwing stones, but you should know better at whom to throw them. And, please, stop repeating the leftist propaganda.
Yes lets not discuss the topic like civilized human beings with different opinions. You win - not interested in playing your stupid name calling games.
Winning is not everything, and it was farthest from my mind when I wrote to you.
I merely tried to explain something that may have been of help.
not interested in playing your stupid name calling games.
I am sorry if you found my post stupid. It appears it offended you --- sorry about that too.
Have a good night.
Yes, most people that are finding themselves "unemployed" have been working steadily for the last 20 years. It is a big adjustment to go from having a job and a career to sitting around thinking about what you want to do with the rest of your life. Most of the people I know are moving into different careers because they can not afford to wait for the job market to turn around. I wish you the best in your new career path.
Nothing you can name, no matter how egregious, no matter how clear cut, counts as "corporate welfare" in TopQuirk's eyes.
Many of those whiners, here, COULD get jobs, if they put as much work into finding a new job, as they do in typing copious posts of outrage.
Wrong answer - that's a COUSIN It.
This is an IT!:
Seriously, I'm trying to determine the best new language to pick up. What's everybody else picked up lately?
Hindi
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