How Companies Are Preparing For the IT Workforce Exodus

itwbennett writes "If you think there's a glut of contract IT workers now, just wait. 10,000 U.S. baby boomers will turn 65 every day from now until 2030, and at least some of them will want to ease into retirement. This may sound like music to the ears of IT organizations who already would rather hire temporary staff with specialized expertise — especially for working on legacy technologies. 'The contractor ratio, already high in tech, will continue to increase as companies allow retiring staff to work part-time hours or hire them for short-term projects,' says Matthew Ripaldi, senior vice president at IT staffing firm Modis."

Comments

OP or tune it ee

[symbolset]

If you're in tech now the geezers are finally going to let you move up by retiring.

Re:OP or tune it ee

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, if you want to work for India Business Machines or Chinese Info Systems COmpany. Speak much Hindi or Mandarin?

The retirements just mean another faux "shortage" of talent to support more offshoring and H1B programs.

But then, I hear the NSA is hiring...

Re:OP or tune it ee

[symbolset]

We're talking about jobs where geezers are retiring. Nobody retires from .com jobs as a geezer. They quit, cash out, opt out, are laid off or are forced out a-la Microsoft's Stack Ranking while they're still in their 30's. There is no retirement in private sector tech. If you're old enough to worry about that, you're on your way out.

Re:OP or tune it ee

[Gr8Apes]

And yet, the faster IT "develops", the more it seems like year x's crop reinvents the wheel, and several years later, the "hot" trend that was the silver bullet either really does have all the same flaws as yesteryear's tech, or brought in some new ones that made it an even worse choice.

The only thing that's developed rather rapidly is hardware, and that train has slowed relative to technology to take advantage of it. Software wise, some new tech has come out, but mostly existing tech has refined itself. Nothing I'd call revolutionary compared to what existed before.

Re:OP or tune it ee

[boristdog]

I've heard it too, and I'm making it a reality, for myself at least. I'm not a true "boomer", since I was born in the mid-60's, but I'm not really whatever they call what came next, either.

But I see what's happening with the lack of jobs. So I'm saving my money, paying off all my debts, building up some alternate income sources and I plan to retire in about 5 or 6 years in my early 50's so someone younger can have my high-paying programmer/dba/analyst job. I don't need a huge house (kids are gone) or an expensive car, expensive 5 star vacations, etc. All I need is health insurance, my little place, my pets, my garden, a good car, lots of inexpensive vacations to fun places and some side work to keep me busy and I'm a happy SOB.

Turns out that none of that costs much except health insurance. And the republicans in my state want to keep me from getting affordable health care. So I can't retire until I can get that. And neither can my older co-workers. So we have to work, causing young people to be shut out of the good jobs, causing an economic crisis.

All because a bunch of petulant little whiners in government don't want people to have affordable health insurance because it may make the black man in the White House look good..

Re:OP or tune it ee

[swillden]

We're talking about jobs where geezers are retiring. Nobody retires from .com jobs as a geezer. They quit, cash out, opt out, are laid off or are forced out a-la Microsoft's Stack Ranking while they're still in their 30's. There is no retirement in private sector tech. If you're old enough to worry about that, you're on your way out.

Bah.

I'm 44 and quite productively employed in private sector tech... and work with many people significantly older than I am, some into their 60s.

Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

"...says Matthew Ripaldi, senior vice president at IT staffing firm Modis"

Should we even take this post at face value?

Re:Outsourcing

[Joining Yet Again]

Capitalism pretends that you can think in the long term by pandering to the interests of men who only need enough money to live for one lifetime.

All non-regulated industries end up as you describe, really.

light, tunnel, oncoming train

[Swampash]

With 10,000 Baby Boomers hitting retirement and putting their hands out for social security while simultaneously ceasing to pay income tax the IT job market should be the least of the US's worries.

Re:light, tunnel, oncoming train

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to have confused "need" and "want".

Of the retired Boomers I know who were the better-paid bosses of the well-paid IT staffers, exactly ZERO of them have opted out of Social Security.

Every single one of them could continue to live the lifestyles of the rich and famous without a dime of Social Security money. "But it's my damn money the feds stole from me, so I'll damn well collect it. Get the few pennies out of that pyramid scheme that I can."

Those self-entitled assclown Boomers will continue to bleed this country dry, all the while complaining about how tough things are for them and how easy things are for the rest of us.

Nest eggs or no, they'll still be a huge financial burden on our country, which was Swampash's point.

Re:light, tunnel, oncoming train

[SQLGuru]

I'm in my 40s and won't need Socialist Security for many years. I'm planning for the well to be dry (or to be legislated away) by the time I get there, so I'm putting away money on my own. But you can bet that when the time comes, I'll be claiming whatever share I'm allowed. It's *MY* money that I was forced to contribute so that it would be there for my retirement....when I retire, I want it back.

Re:Glut of IT workers?

[ruir]

The point is that everyone nowadays doesn't think long term, and just wants cheap labor, and then complains it can't find competent applicants, because the competent ones are already with a stable job, and/or don't bother applying for cheap ass salaries.