Nearly 50,000 IT Jobs Lost In Past Year 460
snydeq writes "Employment statistics from the US Department of Labor show what most IT people have already realized: IT jobs are getting harder to come by. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13,000 jobs in the information industry were cut in July, bringing the total to 44,000 year over year. An additional 5,000 jobs were lost in telecom this past month. The statistics reinforce a recent survey of top CIOs who indicated that they will be reducing their IT staff over the coming year. According to a staffing research firm, some jobs have gone to outsourcers, while other jobs are simply going away, either due to cost-oriented automation efforts or due to increasing the remaining staff's workload."
I have a hard time believing this ... (Score:1, Informative)
In Ottawa Canada tech jobs are everywhere ... you can sneeze and find a job.
By the way (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I have a hard time believing this ... (Score:2, Informative)
Although I think this article is referring to US tech jobs (stat comes from US Dept. of Labour), you're absolutely right. Ottawa is the silicon valley of Canada. There are plenty of jobs available in Ottawa/Kanata/Gatineau.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:3, Informative)
As if to emphasize the project part: Where the jobs are [cnn.com]. Third full paragraph indicates that the tech industry is looking for management types in the South and Souteast.
This article is about management level jobs but where there's management needed, there are probably jobs there as well as they have to manage someone.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
IT employment news summary: July 29th to Aug 7th (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry if there any errors, or omissions, I am trying to be accurate. A lot has happend in a little over a week.
The following takes place between July 29th and August 7th:
August 07, 2008:
Judge rejects student visa injunction sought by H-1B opponents
Tech workers don't have standing to fight Bush administration visa move
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9111963 [computerworld.com]
August 07, 2008:
Jobless claims surge to highest level in 6 years
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/07/news/economy/jobless_benefits.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes [cnn.com]
August 06, 2008:
Bureau of Labor Statistics reports big drop in tech jobs
Almost 50,000 IT positions lost in last 12 months
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/07/news/economy/jobless_benefits.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes [cnn.com]
Aug 06,2008:
Yet another visa, this one allows 5000 Koreans to work in the USA each year
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200808/200808060014.html [chosun.com]
August 06, 2008:
Apple sued over treatment of it's tech workers
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/06/apple-gets-sued-indentured [theinquirer.net]
August 05, 2008:
Bogus diploma ring busted
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-diploma-mill-04-aug04,0,2164133.story [chicagotribune.com]
August 03, 2008:
July marks seventh consecutive month of job loses
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/46146.html [mcclatchydc.com]
August 02, 2008:
Sun to cut between 1000 to 2500 jobs
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/08/01/sun-us-tech-market-wont-shine-soon/ [wsj.com]
August 01, 2008:
Gartner's grim IT hiring outlook
http://blogs.zdnet.com/careers/?p=140 [zdnet.com]
August 01, 2008:
Feds charges man for H1-B fraud
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_visa01.47edb3e.html# [pe.com]
Jul 31, 2008:
More than 3.7 million Americans had full-time jobs chopped to part time
the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/business/economy/31jobs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin [nytimes.com]
July 31, 2008:
Layoffs set for 22,000 California state workers
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10046324 [mercurynews.com]
July 30, 2008:
WTO Doha talks collapse
India's backdoor attempt to allow more H-1Bs into the USA failed, for now
http://www.economicpopulist.org/?q=content/why-you-should-be-thrilled-wto-doha-talks-collapsed [economicpopulist.org]
July 30, 2008:
NY gov slashes spending; state said in "recession"
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN3032764920080730?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 [reuters.com]
July 30, 2008:
China trade has cost 2.3 million U.S. jobs
http://www.reuters.com/article/politic [reuters.com]
First off... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:So true. (Score:1, Informative)
"Similarly, instead of being able to get a human (or substandard indian variant thereof)"
See, there you go ruining a perfectly good rant with an unnecessary racist comment. Good for you.
The detailed report shows different story... (Score:3, Informative)
... unless I'm reading something wrong (which can't possibly be!).
Table B-1 linked to from the original article (and at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t14.htm [bls.gov] for those wanting to go directly there) shows that "Computer System Design and Related" (under "Professional and Business Services") increased by 52K jobs over the last year. "Management and Technical Consulting Services" jobs increased by 72K jobs over the last year. There were also increases in both of these categories for the month of July.
So while overall IT jobs may have decreased, the high value (and high salary!) jobs that are difficult to offshore have increased.
Am I reading this correctly?
Re:So true. (Score:1, Informative)
I dont believe this is racism. He is not ranting about being better than someone from central or south america, just that he is upset with the issues that are most prominent where he lives. To just discount him by saying "oh, hes just racists" does not address the issues or make them go away. These are real problems for a lot of people in a lot of cities.
Skilled IT labor is very hard to find (Score:1, Informative)
I would gladly pay $50+ for skilled US programmers, but not a single one I've ever found (skilled, remember) would work for less than $70/hr (more than I make, and I'm the lead developer).
I'm posting AC because I don't need a few thousand unskilled schmucks sending me resumes.
Re:Chickens += Roost (Score:1, Informative)
The thing is no matter how good the Indians qualifications look on paper (and I've had enough of their CVs come across my desk to know) they either can't cut it in the real world or have exagerated their level of skill. For example, I interviewed one guy who claimed to have done an Oracle 9i to Oracle 10g upgrade in recent weeks. I asked him where Oracle kept its alert log. He didn't know. And, unfortunately, this is typical. Need I say more......
Re:So true. (Score:2, Informative)
I have no problem with you attacking the US government, foreign policy, whatever. I do plenty of it myself. But leave the broadsides against the general population. It's a stupid tactic that makes you (and by extension, all of us Europeans) look ignorant, intolerant, reactionary, and just generally beneath notice.
Plus, debating properly might actually change some minds, or at least get people interested; nationalistic crap like this is just pointless and ignored.
Re:So true? No, not quite... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:3, Informative)
Indeed, such as by transitioning to less manpower-intensive operating systems, like Linux.
Job Losses Offshore... (Score:2, Informative)
I left Lexis-Nexis / Reed-Elsevier several months ago in the wake of announced plans to mova ALL possible IT/engineering work to India. The plans were revealed in an embarrassing powerpoint presentation authored by RE's first "Chief Offshoring & Outsourcing Officer" (COOO) last autumn. The jobs going offshore are development jobs using the newest technology. The "legacy systems" jobs went offshore long ago... The COOO's .ppt file mentioned the target date of 2010 for "lights out onshore" with the neat little graphs showing all engineering work in India at that time. It would go in "waves"...
Having seen this exact same process gut the engineering workforce at NCR, this isn't so new or shocking. It's just more of the same depressing trend...
I wonder how many other corporations are now accelerating their efforts to offshore everything?