Times remain tough for IT workers looking for jobs
across the US, according to a new employment study of the IT
marketplace.
The study, conducted by the Center for Urban Economic
Development at the University of Illinois in Chicago, found that
the IT job market remains tight, with more workers than available
jobs in many parts of the US.
Nik Theodore, director of the center and co-author of the study,
cited several reasons for the continuing lull in IT employment.
He said many employers remain sceptical about the nation's
economic recovery from the last recession and noted that some of
the job losses in the US are due to offshore outsourcing.
The study also found that there has been a move by companies to
use off-the-shelf packaged software rather than hiring staff
programmers to design and build needed business applications, he
said.
"It's important to recognise that even though the economy has
been recovering, in IT, the job losses are continuing," Theodore
said.
The study only looked at IT workers in traditional IT companies
and not at IT workers who are employed by non-IT businesses such as
retail, banking and insurance companies.
The study was conducted using US government Current Employment
Statistics data and data from the US Current Population Survey for
2001 to 2004. It also focused only on workers in three IT
employment classifications: software publishers; internet service
providers, web search portals and data processing; and computer
systems design and related services.
Nationally, IT employment in those categories totaled 2.1
million in March 2001. That number had dropped to 1.7 million by
April 2004, according to the study.
About 200,300 of those 403,300 lost jobs came after the nation's
last recession was declared over in November 2001.
The worst-hit area for IT job seekers was in the San Francisco
region, which suffered a 49% IT job loss between March 2001 and
April 2004, according to the study.
"It's important for the general public and the IT workforce to
understand" the numbers, Theodore said, because long-term job
losses accentuate the need for a continuation of unemployment
benefits for affected workers.
"It means we need to relook at unemployment compensation rules
so people don't run out of benefits while jobs are still not
there," he said.
The University of Illinois study comes on the heels of an IT
employment report released last week by the supplier group, the
Information Technology Association of America. The ITAA report
concurred that while there was a slight (2%) increase in IT
employment early this year, IT job growth is expect to slow for the
remainder of 2004.
Todd R Weiss writes for Computerworld