Techies Migrate in Search of Work

prostoalex writes "Tracing the story of one family where the father is employed in the IT field, the Washington Post discusses the current unemployment in the information technology field. For a good reason - for the first time in 30 years the IT unemployment rate exceeded the national average unemployment rate, implying that you have a better chance of getting a job if your field is something other than IT. The journalist does offer a disclaimer, saying that the term 'IT worker' is applied equally to a top-notch scientist in a research lab, to a dot-com startup billionaire, and to a local HTML guru. Relevant employment statistics also shows that layoffs in the IT field were up 60% in the third quarter of 2004."

Comments

Silicon Valley

[rackhamh]

Here in Silicon Valley, the SJ Mercury News recently put out a report on the "improving economy", as measured by the declining unemployment rate.

In other news, the unemployment rate in this area is declining because IT workers have given up trying to find work, and are leaving Santa Clara County in droves.

Thereby reinforcing the finding that 90% of statistics are worthless.

Yet still "labor shortage" claims

[Tablizer]

for the first time in 30 years the IT unemployment rate exceeded the national average unemployment rate

And pro-work-visa lobbyists, such as ITAA, still claim there is a "shortage" of IT people.