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More Tech, STEM Workers Voluntarily Quitting Their Jobs (dice.com)

Posted by timothy on from the spend-time-with-family dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes: New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests that more tech professionals are voluntarily quitting their jobs. In August, some 507,000 people in Professional and Business Services (which encompasses tech and STEM positions) quit their positions, up from 493,000 in July. It's also a significant increase over August 2014, when 456,000 professionals quit. Voluntary quits could be taken as a sign of a good economy (Dice link), hinting that people feel confident enough about the market to jump to a new position (likely with better pay and benefits), if not strike out on their own as an independent. For tech pros, things are particularly rosy at the moment; according to the BLS, the national unemployment rate among tech pros has hovered at under 3 percent for the past year, although not all segments have equally benefitted from that trend: Programmers, for example, saw their unemployment rate dip precipitously between the first and second quarters of this year, even as joblessness among Web developers, computer support specialists, and network and systems engineers ticked upwards during the same period. If there's one tech segment that hasn't enjoyed economic buoyancy, it's manufacturing, which has suffered from layoffs and steady declines in open positions over the past several quarters.

9 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. You like our work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pay us well and treat us well, and we won't keep job-hopping.

    1. Re:You like our work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Pretty much this.

      Management and other small-minded folks like to blame employee dissatisfaction on anything but the real causes: mistreatment by management, mandatory unpaid OT, expectation of being on-call 24/7 and very few opportunities for promotion and advancement for tech workers who choose to stay at one company.

    2. Re:You like our work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, and it's during the boom times companies whine about "employee loyalty" and all that shit they destroyed. Yet during recessions, they can't do the layoffs fast enough.

      Boo fucking hoo.

    3. Re:You like our work? by plopez · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why not share you numbers? An efficient labor market cant operate without a good flow of information.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    4. Re:You like our work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You got it!

      Company offers a 2% raise, competitor offers 30% more pay and better benefits. No contest.

      Actually, I went to my boss and explained that I could get 30% more by getting another job. His response was "I don't believe you, times are tough and you should be thankful you have a job." He was surprised when I turned in my resignation 48 hours later. Seems the listing company jumped when I sent in my resume, interviewed me same day and offered the next morning.

      i've been at the new job a year and love it!

  2. Fed up by paugq · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see more and more people in IT leaving their jobs to work on something else.

    People are fed up with low pay, crazy schedules, lots of pressure -often times for no reason!- and technology changing at Formula 1 speed (just take a look at the web: what was good and trendy 2 years ago is proscribed today).

    To top that up, add off-shoring: today you are key, tomorrow your job is in India, Vietnam or who knows where. People do not like job insecurity.

    What are they moving to? Everything else: law, gardening, plumbing, cake shops, teaching, whatever with a more relaxed schedule, people not discussing about hourly cost and difficult or impossible to offshore. Really.

  3. Well, of COURSE they're quitting their jobs by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    They've finished training their H1-B replacements, after all.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  4. I started in 1979 - I think tech is getting worse by walterbyrd · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have seen ads for jobs as desktop techs, asking for a masters degree in engineering.

    Costco starts out at $20.00 an hour. Walmart truck drivers make $82K a year. I see ads for developers, asking for a degree, and five years experience, for $14 an hour. I see ads for interns that require five years experience.

  5. They see the writing on the walls by Grand+Facade · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When all of their cow-orkers speak Hindi..

    What is big business going to do when the short term payoff HB-1 workers go home and take their new found knowledge with them?

    They will cry crocodile tears about how the offshore engineers are beating them at their own game.

    They will need more government subsidies and tax breaks to survive!

    --
    Rick B.