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U.S. IT jobs Down 400K Since 2001

Cryofan writes "A research study shows that American information technology industry 'lost 403,300 jobs between March 2001, when the recession began, and April 2004.' Over half of those jobs - 206,300 - were lost after the recession was declared over in November 2001. In all, the job market for high-tech workers shrank by 18.8 percent, to 1,743,500, between March 2001 and April 2004. And the bloodletting continues -- as reported here on Slashdot earlier this year, the number of employed Software Engineers fell by 15% from April to July of 2004 (from 856,000 to 725,000)."

19 of 1,049 comments (clear)

  1. Americans... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...are stupid. 1337 Cheeneese will win!

  2. Thank you, outsourcing by techno-vampire · · Score: 0, Troll

    I bet almost all the jobs lost in the USA have gone to India and/or the Phillipines, instead of just being lost. More will go as outsourcing increases, until so many are gone that people over here are willing to work for as little as those in the Far East. Then, we'll see qualified techs doing support again, qualified programmers will be back at work and our economy will be in the tank because wages will be so low. And all the MBA's that caused this will be banking their profits.

    --
    Good, inexpensive web hosting
  3. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You lazy Americans don't deserve jobs.

  4. A Real Mystery... by Rayonic · · Score: 1, Troll

    I mean, we all know about the Dot-Com bubble bursting, but why hadn't the economy recovered by November 2001? Did some kind of event negatively affect the economy a month or two before that?

    Can't figure it out...

  5. Re:Hold on a minute. by pudge · · Score: 0, Troll

    We have more jobs now than we had when the recession -- that Bush did not create -- ended in November 2001, by almost 1 million. To blame Bush for the net job loss is to say he is to blame for the recession, which does not make any sense at all.

  6. Re:Analysis of Outsourcing, H-1Bs, and Illegal Ali by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Intellectual Theft

    As a consultant for several large companies, I'd always done my work on Windows. Recently however, a top online investment firm asked us to do some work using Linux. The concept of having access to source code was very appealing to us, as we'd be able to modify the kernel to meet our exacting standards which we're unable to do with Microsoft's products.

    Although we met several technical challenges along the way (specifically, Linux's lack of Token Ring support and the fact that we were unable to defrag its ext2 file system), all in all the process went smoothly.

    Everyone was very pleased with Linux, and we were considering using it for a great deal of future internal projects. So you can imagine our suprise when we were informed by a lawyer that we would be required to publish our source code for others to use. It was brought to our attention that Linux is copyrighted under something called the GPL, or the Gnu Protective License. Part of this license states that any changes to the kernel are to be made freely available.

    Unfortunately for us, this meant that the great deal of time and money we spent "touching up" Linux to work for this investment firm would now be available at no cost to our competitors.
    Furthermore, after reviewing this GPL our lawyers advised us that any products compiled with GPL'ed tools - such as gcc - would also have to its source code released. This was simply unacceptable.

    Although we had planned for no one outside of this company to ever use, let alone see the source code, we were now put in a difficult position. We could either give away our hard work, or come up with another solution. Although it was tough to do, there really was no option: We had to rewrite the code, from scratch, for Windows 2000. I think the biggest thing keeping Linux from being truly competitive with Microsoft is this GPL. Its draconian requirements virtually guarentee that no business will ever be able to use it. After my experience with Linux, I won't be recommending it to any of my associates. I may reconsider if Linux switches its license to something a little more fair, such as Microsoft's "Shared Source". Until then its attempts to socialize the software market will insure it remains only a bit player.

    Thank you for your time.

  7. Re:Politics? by gcaseye6677 · · Score: 0, Troll

    I learned a long time ago, don't waste your time with Slashdot story submissions. They won't even get posted unless you're a paying $ubmitter. Or unless you're submitting something completely retarded like that Shaggy Steed of Physics pile of crap story.

  8. woah hold on a minute!!!! by maximus21 · · Score: 0, Troll

    all you point and click, M$, crackerjack box IT folks don't qualify as a real IT person.... I could see how they could replace you Windows Folks... lol... real admins.. are *nix peeps..

  9. Re:Hold on a minute. by realdpk · · Score: 1, Troll

    You have to give Bush some credit. He did *try* to create more jobs. After all, those jobs held by National Guardsmen had to be filled by someone else while they're gone, eh?

  10. Re:Lest we forget the dot-com burst by Izaak · · Score: 1, Troll

    Odd, I thought that ALL the vets that served with him stood behind him on stage and endorsed him. Oh, you mean the same swift boat vets that went on TV and outright lied and said they served with him even though they have never even met.
    FactCheck.org does an excellent job deconstructing the Swift Boat smear campaign. Yes, it is another Karl Rove hatchet job like the McCaine attack you mentioned. Unfornately it is working... Bush's recent surge in the polls is likely in no small part because of the these ads.

  11. Re:Don't be a girlie-man economist. by CatGrep · · Score: 0, Troll

    This was rated '5 insightful'?

    Two consecutive quarters of negative growth consitute a recession. That's what the term means, and so there isn't anthing inaccurate about saying that the small recession we had ended years ago, even if the job situation is sucky right now

    Perhaps, but who really believes that the recession ended in November of 2001? And how exactly are we measuring growth? Growth in corporate profits maybe, but there's definately a disconnect now between that and how most workers in the country are doing.

    Get out there and look for a job - any job.


    Like one of them there manufacturing jobs in the fast food industry. Bush is trying to get burger-building reclassified as manufacturing to show that things aren't as bad as we thought.

    It's too late, the jobs have already been lost and you ask us to pretend like they haven't been.

    The US economy is an incredbily powerfull beast that has brought incredible wealth to millions of people. It's not going to stop working over night.

    Why not? It's happened before (remember the Great Depression which ran from about 1929 to 1939?). The US economy-beast isn't bulletproof.

  12. Re:Hold on a minute. by myowntrueself · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah but if 1000 Americans die in Iraq, presumably there will have to be 1000 people hired to replace them.

    The more Americans die in wars overseas the better for the American economy.

    The best thing would be for an entire carrier battlegroup to get wiped out, then there would be a huge leap in the economy as they would have to hire people to rebuild the ships and replace the sailors.

    The Powers that Be don't just view war as good for business because of the boost to industry but because it trims out surplus population.

    I'm not saying that its *right*, I happen to think that its evil.

    But its how the minds of certain powerful people works.

    (next thing they'll be Immanentizing the Eschaton).

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  13. Re:Lest we forget the dot-com burst by mrfunnypants · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Oh, you mean the same swift boat vets that went on TV and outright lied and said they served with him even though they have never even met."

    I am getting sick of arguing about this.

    Do you really believe that a boat went out alone on missions all the time? It is well known that missions involved 2,3 and sometimes more boats. So when they say they served with him, they did. They went on the same missions in the same boats next to him. Also you forgot to mention one of the vets on the boat is not on the stage. He was in the ads. Ohh you also forgot to mention that Kerry's commander was in the ads. You know the guy above him that SERVED with him. You also forget to mention a lot more but it will be pointless to argue with you.

    p.s. the one that endorsed him for senator is now against him after he found out everything that happened. This didn't occur till 2004 when the swift vets realized that Kerry was the same Kerry they SERVED with.

    "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" -Confucius

    --
    "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" -Confucius
  14. Re:Anyone hiring in the Richmond, VA area? by maxpublic · · Score: -1, Troll

    Been there, done that, heard this bullshit before. Guess you have to justify all that money you spent on your C.S. degree somehow.

    Max

    --
    My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
  15. Vote Bush! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    He'll fix everything.
    It's God's will.

  16. To compete against Outsourcing we must be Enslaved by ThoreauHD · · Score: 0, Troll

    The fact that America or any other civilized country cannot compete against outsourcing seems to escape alot of you armchair "work will set you free" fucksticks. I'm German, and I know exactly what that means. Where I came from 6 Million people didn't know what that meant. They do now.

    This is not a level playing field we're up against. We are competing against State sanctioned slavery in some very big ass parts of this planet. It seems that money comes before human rights, even when you are an American. The fact that everyone is treated equally even if we don't have a red dot on our forehead, or set our wives on fire, or kill people with a different opinion, abort all of our daughters, enslave the one's that survive, et. all. You get the picture. Now, let me paint you another one.

    It's all OK. You see, as these armchair Arbeit macht Frei supremacists have pointed out- It'll all just work out for the best. Just.. Like.. So...

    I don't mind finding a piece of a chinese kid in my 5 cent noodles every once in awhile- it's cheap!
    I don't mind knowing that the 50 Indians that are learning linux on www.linuxquestions.org are building the new US supercomputer for nuclear missle testing- It's cheap!
    I don't mind that the Chinese are clubbing their citizens to death in the middle of town because they were using the Internet when they should be copying Doom3 CD's.

    No, I don't mind at all- DO You Know Why Johnny?

    Because corporate America/EU are going to have their very own slaves. These new slaves are called YOU!

    And YOU can get these slaves for the low price of whatever you want- because.. heh.. get this- They don't have rights!! These idiots don't even have a Union! The best they can do is blab on IRC that they're working 110 hours a week with 2 IT guys running 2500 computers in 3 states!! If they start bleeding out of their nose, just make up some excuse like- "You're a crackwhore drug addict!", and fire them! Sweeeet...

    Isn't that a real growth opportunity! I thought you'd like it.

    Now, where do YOU go to get these completely hapless and powerless YOU slaves? That's the gag! Odds are- You've already got them. All you have to do is turn off the water, and lock the door- and they'll work until they drop from exhaustion or a heart attack (YMMV(tm)).

    And remember, that guy next door could be your next YOU slave- so keep your chin up! You're competing with the Big Boys Now! Arbeit Macht Frei!

  17. say thank you to Clinton for that one. by aroundsomewhere · · Score: -1, Troll

    Since he caused the recession

  18. Re:Analysis of Outsourcing, H-1Bs, and Illegal Ali by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    John Kerry -
    "I am for the war in Iraq!" "No wait I changed my mind!"
    "I was a couragous soldier in Vietnam!" "What do you mean everyone else that was with me says I was a coward and an idiot! SHIT the truth is out!"
    Yeah I want a guy that cant make up his mind and lies about is service duty. And you cant say Bush lied because its all there. Even though they try and make something out of his record theres nothing there to bash him about. :) I love liberal media.