Slashdot Mirror
U.S. IT Hiring Increases Despite Outsourcing
surefooted1 writes "A CNN article reports that a new study has shown that U.S. tech hiring has increased, despite oversees outsourcing. It mentions that the job market is higher today than it was at the height of the dot-com boom." From the article: "The study suggests that there are several factors in the continued growth in demand for IT workers here. The report said part of it is due to the use of offshoring by U.S. companies, including start-up firms, to limit their costs and thus grow their businesses. That, in turn, creates more opportunities here even as an increasing amount of work is done overseas. The study also said that companies from a variety of sectors in the economy continue to discover greater efficiency and more competitive operations through investment in IT."
And is this at all related to turn over in the industry? are we seeing more hiring because the people who shouldn't be there in the first place are finally bailing?
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
It's important to note that we are nowhere near approaching market saturation as computers are concerned.
There are still millions of homes that do not have computers at all; that number is shrinking every day. And more and more households are building home networks, some even going so far as to add servers. Home automation is becoming practical and affordable, meaning even more IT-related equipment is going into the home.
Schools are still trying to catch up to the digital revolution as well. The local district has a 4:1 student to PC ratio, and their target is 1:1. They'll be buying PCs as quickly as budget allows. The more they buy, the more they'll spend on IT--and most of that will necessarily be in the immediate area.
And of course businesses are investing more and more into IT as they stop seeing it as a money sink and start viewing it as a way to increase efficiency or even as an investment.
The outsourcing we're seeing is simply the offloading of what jobs can be done without being on site. There is a lot more IT work that requires proximity than work that can be sent overseas.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
In other words, outsourcing has actually helped our economy and provided new employment opportunities for the displaced
Correlation != causation. There's nothing to say the tech industry wouldn't be even more vibrant without the outsourcing.
This article points out the obvious fact that we are insanely addicted to technology.
I dunno. Saying we are addicted to technology is like saying we are addicted to air and clean drinking water.
Secondly, business is like war. Those with the most resources and better technology win (or go home with the bigger stock options). A company that doesn't have a competant IT staff and workers skilled in using computers and is competing with a company that does, is like a band of spear men going against a tank in a war game.
Sure, if you throw enough spear men at a tank, you can beat it like in Civilization II, but your basically bleeding more money than a drunken VC at a Phantom Console shareholders meeting.
No one wants to be sent on a Bi-Plane with machine guns against a guy with Stealth bombers and guided missles. The same goes for a guy with a hand crank calculator and a peice of paper going against a guy with a copy of excel and a laser printer.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Doesn't it make sense, thought, that after a long cycle of firing IT workers that they will need to hire some of that lost staff? Just because hiring is on the rise doesn't mean the IT field is suddenly healthy again. If I start up a company and hire 100 workers over 5 years, then I fire 75 of them, then a year later hire 25 more, I could rightfully claim that my company is growing faster than ever. Doesn't mean it's more healthy than ever. Doesn't mean my company is better off than it was 3 years ago.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
That is how the economy works for an individual but not on larger scales. If a job is out sourced and a company is more profitable much of the time that saved money is reinvested into the company and other jobs are created. Even if that company choses to pay dividends to shareholders with the profit, the shareholders will then often invest that money into other companies thus creating other jobs.
Empirically, most of the time when jobs are outsourced form one country to another the country that is having jobs oursourced winds up with more jobs. The problem is the created jobs are typically higher level and require more education. Provided Amercia is willing to continue to have people with more and more education working in this country then we will be able to continue to capatalize on the benefits of outsourcing.
If we had stoped outsourcing with car manafactures then we would still be a country with a large auto industry and we wouldn't have had the resources(human) to capatalize on the information technologies or bio-technology.
That was a historical aberration and there's no economic policy that will bring it back.
I'd have to disagree. Mostly, because I believe economics and technology is hard to predict. We might see somthing similar in the 2020's if Nanotech took off or neural interfaced VR etc. Heck, we might a second bubble in the 2010's with robotics.
All our current college degrees and current certificates might be worthless when a new technology pardigm comes along and shatters our current economic mode.
The internet boom from 1999 to 2001 was unpredicted and unexpected. It was a shock to the current economic system today and changed all our lives. This is of course the nature of accelerated changes in technology growth.
To sit back and say "This won't ever happen again." is kind of a 'head in the sand' kind of mentality. Personally, I know it may never happen, but I am keenly aware of the fact that if I fail to constantly update my skills and be willing to learn, I might miss out on future oportunities and in worse case scenario also face a pink slip because my skills and degree are no longer valid.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I'm sorry, but if we want to outsource our lowest common denominator positions, go for it.
It's kind of ridiculous.
Dude: Oh no! We've outsourced our cashier positions! Now we're only hiring management, finance, and HR positions for Americans.
Me: But... isn't that a good thing?
Dude: Those positions require more education!
Me: But... isn't that a good thing?
Or.
Dude: I used to get paid $95k as an entry level programmer. Now my friend who just started at the same position is only making $45k...
Me: So you were probably being paid more than market value.
Dude: Yeah, but outsourcing is causing my position to become commoditized!
Me: So you should probably educate yourself more and move up, huh?
Dude: That requires work!
Me: So I guess $45k aint so bad for that mentality eh?
Dude: NO, but I used to make $90k! This isn't fair!
Me: If your company paid everybody double their market value, they'd go under and have to lay you off. That probably isn't fair either.
--
Last time I checked, entry level programming postions aren't something you just walk in off of the street and do. It requires learning too. The IT industry, much with every other revolution, raised the minimum standards of education, training, and expectations. That's the sort of thing that keeps America competitive and able to call itself a developed nation.
"Every day the US is becoming a country where the educational and economical divide grows. The problem is that those on the top are increasing looking down on those below them, and those below them, are becoming increasing bitter of the fact that no-one is watching out for them.
(I'm not advocating that outsourcing be banned, however, I am advocating that something be done to help those who were displaced)"
I vehemently disagree on the educational front, and would suggest you post facts for the "economical" divide you suggest is occurring.
Graduating from high school in the US opens up all the education that one needs. Student loans are available to anyone who needs them, regardless of earnings, credit history, or virtually any other consideration (there are a few qualifiers, but they are easily met). So the argument that students can't afford school is BS.
Which could only leave access, but that's a BS argument too, because many (not sure exactly how many) states require state funded schools to accept Community College/Junior College graduates. Similarly, they require CC/JCs to accept high school graduates. So the access argument is BS too.
Now, kindly explain HOW you came to the conclusion that the education divide is widening when there is an educational opportunity for virtually anyone who can graduate (and in many places, Florida for example, you don't even need to do that, just pass a GED, or General Equivalency Diploma test, which is 10th grade level).
More chicken little BS.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Its members are mostly academics, who make their living not by programming but by encouraging as many people as possible to major in computer science. So naturally it is in their interest to paint a rosey picture of future employment prospects.