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Current Unemployment Rate in the IT Industry?
concerned-about-employment asks: "What's the unemployment rate in the IT industry currently? Years ago I heard it was 8-9% but with so many jobs going offshore and the general unemployment rate rising, could it be even higher than before? Has it really broken 10% as some people say? That would mean 1 out of every 10 IT workers is out of a job. Personally though, from the perspective of a recent college graduate, it looks like 20% from here." How does the actual national unemployment rate in IT compare to the number of IT professionals that you know who are currently out of work?
Jobs in IT from tech jobs. There were a large number of non-technical folks who became tech-morass victims. They can find other work far more easily.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
If you just finished school you better have some internship experience. Also, don't demand too much money. I've seen people ask for 60K who just came out of school. For that kind of money one can hire a skilled person with experience nowadays.
Oh and if you procrastinated through out college you are fucked. I have friends who if today came to me for a job I wouldn't hire. It is sad but true.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
After a 7 month period of no job, i can say it is rough out there. The tech companies in my area are VERY picky now about who they hire, and they pay a LOT less. I knew of one big financial firm that wanted a webmaster/developer/Unix SA and were willing to pay 35k for it, and that was the upper max.
Also, be prepared to move to different parts of the country. From what I hear, Silicon Valley isnt so hot any more, but other areas, like Conn. and Raleigh/Durham, NC are much better.
Hopefully you majored in something useful like management or accounting so that you don't have to worry about finding a job when you get out. Keep computers and programming as your hobby and let your other work pay the bills.
If you still have some money, think about pursuing a professional degree (JD, MBA, etc.). Demand for these never dips.
There are no jobs in IT out here for you.
I have been pwned because my
Unless you and everybody else in your department and/or company lost your job simultaneously, chances are VERY GOOD that it's because you sucked and were gunned early on because it was relatively less painful to do so then, for instance, to go without free coffee.
If you still aren't working, chances are you should have never been in the field in the first place. There's jobs. They exist. Some of them are specialized. Some of them are stupid.
All of them will go to the person who sucks least before the manager gets fed up of looking at resume's.
If you are too proud to take a pay cut, you should have become a lawyer.
I'm US born and raised, but I spent a year in India, and I'll tell you one thing, if you want to realize how much of a PRIVILEGE it is to get paid lots of money to type, talk, and think, go spend some time in India. If we were faced with the kind of misery and suffering on a daily basis that the Indians are, well...you probably wouldn't be out of a job.
-Mano
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the "information" section was 7.2% in December 2002 and 6.5% in December of 2003. The actual number of unemployed was 255K in 12/2002 and 224 in 12/2003.
The SAGE/SANS/BigAdmin survey done for 2002 says that 15.3% of thier respondants were unemployed for at least a week during the year (I don't have a link offhand, but Google might). They won't post the 2003 survey until March, but I would be suprised if 2003 was worse than 2002.
I've gotten calls from two recuiters looking for people in the last week. I think I got a grand total of 0 calls in 2002, and maybe a couple in 2003. I think people are realizing that not everything can be moved offshore and that programmers with domain/business experience are actually worth what you pay them here in the states. Dell, for example, is moving some of thier IT facilities back to the US after outsourcing it to India.
I hate to jinx it, but I think the worst is over. It may not be 1999 again anytime soon, but the storm clouds are clearing.
The real problem is that many in the industry simply don't know how to get a job. First, there is the group of people who were working for a company for 10+ years that got laid off. The job market is very different now than it was, so most aren't prepared. Second, people who got into the business during the boom never had to learn any real skills when it came to landing jobs, so now that companies are picky they are losing out.
The way to find a job is through networking. There is simply no better way, so if you are unemployed and not networking you might need to rethink your situation.
I know people who are no longer considered to be in the IT industry as they've had to get jobs stacking boxes at Home Depot, etc.
They aren't counted since they aren't unemployed, even though they ARE unemployed from their profession.
Any IT-specific numbers you find will be wrong for this reason.
I'm not talking a 1st level phone-jockey, I'm talking about talented sysadmins with many years of experience!
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
The high rate of employment in IT has been of concern to me. My neice recently graduated from Gonzaga. I worried she might not be able to find employment in her field (Computer engineering), but she was picked up almost immediately by a defense contracter in southern California. According to her, they interviewed 200 graduates and hired well over 50 of them.
It makes me think companies are opting to fill open positions with younger people whom they can hire at a much lower salary.
MCSE's don't need to know percentages. There's a little bar that tells you when the job is done when it gets to the end.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Well, if you look at my real-world situation it is this:
Friend 1: Employed
Friend 2: Lost Tech Job
Myself 1: Lost Tech Job
Whoa! That's a 66% unemployment rate! Yep. It's pretty bad out there...
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
>> ask if I was interested in working in a call center...
>> not much "entry level" stuff out there
If you don't have the logical skills to connect these two points, I certainly woulnd't hire you. It's tough right now, take a job.
I had trouble a couple of years ago, the company (where I was a System Engineer) folded, I eventually took a job installing cable modems and TV. Working hard, and showing that I was competent got me a promotion to Trainer within a few weeks. When THAT company folded, it took a few months to get a job at a software company (that wrote DOCSIS software), that I wouldn't have gotten if not for the experience at the cable company. The things I did there paved the way for the cool job I have now, after THAT company folded.
Just start working.
Oh, and I never had any fancy technical degree. Back when I was in school, we got our porn on floppies.
I have misplaced my pants.
Not entirely true. Development of enterprise applications is hardly the lowest level of jobs, and that tends to be moving overseas too, though the move is more complex than stuff like helpdesks..
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Remember that in the US if you are unemployed for more than 2 years you are not unemployeed anymore, you are counted as "not in the work force." IT unemployment in MN as far as I can gather is around 30%. I was at a recent meeting for Minneapolis Study the statistics and you'll find that, if you are unemployeed for more that 2 years you magically disappear from the unemployment statistics. Keep this in mind when looking at any statistics about unemployment. MY Grandmother pointed out that in her town during the depression there was 0% unemployment according to US statistics, that because the entire population was either working or had been unemployeed for more that 2 years...
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Why does any company have a mailroom? Or a copy shop. I know how to run a copy machine, and I can put a stamp on an envelope. In truth though, there is a lot of work involved in copies and stamps that isn't visiable from the outside.
I've seen presidents drop 50 pages in a document feeder on the copier, if he can handle it why does the company have a copy room? Answer: because the company sometimes publishes manuals more than a copy or two. The president would make 2 copies of that 50 page document, but more than that and he is better off letting someone else do it. The president could in theory learn to bind those copies, but if he wants a nice presentation better letting someone with expirence do it. (I can bind a book, but expirecnced people can do it nicely)
I can put one letter in the mail. When I need to mail one letter it is faster to do it myself. When I need 100 letters it is better to have the mailroom do it.
You are absolutely correct! I heard about it from this article at underreported.com which points to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
They actually maintain 6 different figures, with the one hovering around 5% being the one that gets reported in the media. The actual number of people really unemployment (as I take it to mean not having a job) is up around 9%-10%.
Here's their PDF explaining the various levels.
--Darren
Also, you must reexamine how you are conducting your job search. You should have started your job hunt at least half a year before graduation. In the meantime, you are complaining bitterly after only a month of searching. You are ignoring possibilities outside your narrow criteria. You are job hunting with your ego rather than with a realistic view of how marketable your skills and background actually are. You are "firing off resumes" instead of searching for a job. Get a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute, read it, and apply its suggestions. Finally, quit acting like your shit don't stink, because plenty prospective employers could wipe their asses with your diploma for what it's worth to them without at least some real industry experience to back it up.
This is not my sandwich.