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Tech Jobs Projected to Double by 2010
netbsd_fan writes "Today's Chicago Tribune has an article that claims that the number of coding jobs will double by 2010, and computer support jobs aren't far behind. It's hard to believe since I just laid off our last two Win32 guys Friday. Could this be a turning point in the labor market?"
That would be great. In the meantime, I'd be happy to see tech jobs return to their former level, let alone double.
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
Not that I have a problem with that...
Despite the current situation, I don't think anyone could realistically predict a long-term deterioration in the tech industry. Regardless of the whether your Nortel stock is doing well or not, technology is just too important to today's economy, underlying business activity in nearly every sector. If it can drive down cost, or provide a competitive advantage, it will be valuable longterm. I'm sure that I'm preaching to the choir here, but technology isn't going away...
Further, as worker productivity increases in the longer term, while natural resources become scarce, it seems clear that an increasing proportion of our output will have to consist of services and 'intangible' (e.g., information) products.
Either that, or we'll all be unemployed and starving...
Sure, I hope there are more tech jobs in the future, but does anyone still trust these 'economists?'
Shouldn't they have predicted the initial tech fallout? Almost none did. In fact, when have they ever been right?
Maybe I'm just too cynical, but I'll believe this one whan I see it.
I'm sorry but soon programmer will be what teenage kids do, like mc donalds of today.
Yeah, just like when literacy rates go up and everybody starts writing good novels . . .
The traditional approach of in-house techs for companies doesn't work in a large company becasue the numbers people want to mess with the formula. They see the potential for consolidation which reduces the number of peope needed to support your network. Then they see cheaper programmers available in India or China or any one of several countries with decent education and low pay. So they export those jobs.
Eventually, they see a few ex-techies managing the people who used to be hot stuff making too much money to repeat decisions made by the senior management, and replace those with accounting types.
Remember in most companies it is the overriding goal of Finance to reduce costs. The other parts of the business bring in the profits. One way to reduce costs is to standardize jobs so they can be filled by less talented people with lower earnings.
There will always be a tech industry, but I'm not so sure with outsourcing and globalization that there will be a large American tech industry. The trained monkey jobs may be the last few left.
And so you know who's talking, I'm a VP of IT who worked his way up from general geek over the last 18 years. I've seen the trends play out and I just don't feel good about the future of our industry.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
Now they're projecting a big turn-around in the labor market 7 years from now. Next they'll start wailing about a severe shortage of labor.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
My guess is that, as tech workers are willing to settle for significantly reduced salary and benefits, the number of tech jobs will start climbing again. So the article is probably right in its assertion that the number of tech jobs will increase.
I did get one offer for sum that is laughable.
Do you know what is a laughable sum? $0.00. Anything else in a time of job shortage is good. Just because you can't get a job being lord high muck doesn't mean you can't move out into other areas, and man if you're on your last bagel you will do anything.
I have done everything from stuffing envelopes to deliviring junk mail(yes I was a snail mail spammer), from working in Pizza Hut to being the only development guy in my organisation. One thing I have learnt is do not be too fucking proud to accept the shit jobs. They may be shit but at least they pay more than sitting on your arse waiting for the magical call from the recruitment agency.
html ENGINEERS!
oh my fucking _GOD_!!!!
html *ENGINEERS*!
is this the end?
Personally I think there have been some good things about the downturn(though before I started college I could expect to make far more than I can expect now). Prior to the tech bubble bursting there was admitedly millions in fake money to be made, but at the same time, that fake money was being given to absolutely anyone who could turn on a computer and put together a web page(pretty much anyone if they try). Now most jobs seem to be looking for a college degree as well as real world experience(like jobs for every other field), which means that if you have a college degree and you can manage to find yourself some real world experience(which is the challenge), you're looking at reasonable chances of employment, just not at what you used to make. It seems that many of the jobs that were lost were the people who were underqualified to begin with.
Those of use who can take advantage of the current system will be able to reasonably well, albeit not as well as we did/could have done before.
If I understand correctly, you replace the experienced people, with recent graduates. This lowers salaries. However, does this really reduce costs?
In reviewing code written by less experience co-workers, I have seen obvious improvements for readability, maintenance, debuggability, and performance (performance is secondary - except where it is needed). Personally, I review my own code for these type of improvements and when I can, I improve it.
I will surmise that it may reduce costs over the next 3 months, however, that cost reduction will be replaced with increased costs for maintenance, and finally a complete redesign because the code that has been developed is just too difficult to manage.
Yea, because all those devices are now working and everyone understands them. But if you are foolish to think we have hit the end of development in IT you should find a new field. Something new, strange and must have will appear in a couple of years. It always does, and when it shows up everyone will start buying and hiring again.
Bill Gates might be evil but nobody thinks he is stupid and yet he missed the importance of the Internet until it was almost too late. Events like that have happened several times in this industry and history hasn't stopped. And it will probably be NOW, while the world is worrying about other 'important' things that the next world shaking invention is working it's way out a garage somewhere. Be ready for it when it happens and be an early adopter and expert on it.
Democrat delenda est
This article was written to try to get people to buy technology training. In reality I expect most companies to be reducing the staff of their IT departments to try to become profitable again.
Computer systems these days are built with more redundant and more powerful components that are easier to maintain. Most companies have switched away from the Windows 9x line which saves a awful lot of time dealing with stupid desktop issues. We have also seen the change to web-based software which is getting cheaper and easier to implement and support every day. It is now possible for a small group (3 people or so) to manage a large pool of inexpensive web-servers (20-50) which supports a huge application used by thousands of people. This model is increasingly being used and it works well and saves bundles of money. This, combined with companies new-found zeal for cost cutting will drive the numbers of IT professionals down in the coming years.
My advice is if you aren't in IT, don't try to get into it unless you are really good with computers. If you are in IT but aren't very good at it, think about finding another career. The future in IT may not be very bright.
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My experience is that there is a lot of diversity among my Indian coworkers. Some of them aren't so good, and others are wonderful. It's unfortunate that there aren't enough jobs for all of us, but I'm not sorry they came. They're my friends now. They've become "us".
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
After all the H1B's end, a lot of people will have to head back to India. This will open up a lot of jobs.
Whoever said it will end? It is a continuous program. It might drop down a bit at the end of the year, but greedbags are lobbying to extend it, inventing "labor shortages" with phoney statistics just like they always do.
Table-ized A.I.
The gartner group estimates that 38% of all IT jobs currently are outsourced to oversea's comapnies and that is expecting to grow over 50% during 2004!
Its going to get alot worse in the future as the remaining companies who have "expensive" American workers will feel the pinch of competition from those who outsourced and now sell there products cheaper.
http://saveie6.com/