High-Tech Market Has Lost 400,000 Jobs

[UpInArms]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/9662047.htm?1c

SEATTLE - The U.S. information tech sector lost 403,300 jobs between March 2001 and this past April, and the market for tech workers remains bleak, according to a new report.

Perhaps more surprising, just over half of those jobs - 206,300 - were lost after experts declared the recession over in November 2001, say the researchers from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

In all, the researchers said, the job market for high-tech workers shrank by 18.8 percent, to 1,743,500 over the period studied.

<snip>

Theodore said the study shows that high-tech workers "are really bearing the brunt of economic restructuring strategies." It also shows that the end of the recession did not signal the end of high-tech job woes, he said.

"Not only has it not turned around, in many cases it has gotten worse," said Theodore.

...more...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Tech workers thought they were way too high brow to unionize when

the AFL-CIO approached them....now that their jobs have gone overseas and they can't do shit about it....wonder if they might have a change of heart.

[toopers]

4. Most of the jobs didn't go over seas.

Most of the jobs are just gone!

[ixion]

5. yep, that's the truth

all this talk of recovery, and still the high-tech market is barren.

[Eloriel]

15. An awful lot of them DID go overseas

I'm changing my ISP (Earthlink) after more than a decade with Mindspring to start which was then merged with Earthlink precisely because all their customer service jobs have gone to India.

I live near Atlanta and used to work in the tech sector. Friends I still have in the biz have been decimated by the last few years.

[barb162]

22. I am wondering where you see that point

[Robert Oak]

18. There are grassroots groups + unions forming

and they are partnering with the AFL-CIO

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

19. That's good news...thanks

[ReadTomPaine]

26. Give this person a prize.

Hit it on the nose. If i had a dime for everyone I met in Tech who complained about union workers, I would be able to open a business large enough to employ them all.

RTP

[cthrumatrix]

2. ask chimps "admin"...all is fine...it's very technical flipping burgers

[krkaufman]

8. Hey, the fast food joints use computers...

... so couldn't those jobs be counted as high-tech (and not just manufacturing)?

[whistle]

3. Oh boy, at annual salaries of $60K to $120K, that ought to have...

...a major impact on GDP of at least $290 billion or about a 2.6% drop.

[Vincardog]

7. I went from $30/ Hour to nothing

The H1b crowd started to drive down DP salaries. For the last 3 years they have been sending the work to India where is is not done correctly or in a timely manner. However the CIO types claim to be saving money and get Millions. Ain't it great?

[barb162]

23. I don't think the government should allow those workers in the US

if there are qualified people here willing to take the work. In other words, put ads out of the opening(s) and if no US workers respond, then the employer could use H1b people. What's going on in this country as to employment drives me nuts. Free market gone amuk.

[mhr]

6. Unemployed 51 Months - Dallas, TX Devastated - Thanks GW!

eom

[Vincardog]

9. No income since GW took over. Thanks GW CUSTER

[lapfog_1]

25. Unemployed for 18 months

straight. Employed for all of about 9 months in the last 4 years
total (one startup went broke 3 months after I joined, another
hired me just to close the office and lay off everyone 2 months
later, third hired me and then 4 months later outsourced the entire
group to Yugoslavia). I'm an OS developer with extensive file
system and disk subsystem experience.

Thanks, dubya!

My savings are gone and I need to (at age 46) find a completely
new line of work.

[mbperrin]

10. Woo-hoo! Look at that *Bush job machine go!

There go some more!

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. The tech jobs were created during the tech boom of the mid-late

90's. Other than that, tech has been in the toilet since 1970. In the long run probably any other career will pay better than tech. Anymore, the majority of high tech jobs are involved with military contracts. No thanks.

[salvorhardin]

12. What are your thoughts on this...

I've been saying for a long time that if the U.S. was really interested in creating good high paying jobs that we need to have a major technology initiative on two fronts; manned space exploration and developing alternative energy technologies. I'm not referring to half-assed misdirections like the neocons keep putting out, but rather a solid Apollo era type program.

[UpInArms]

16. well, I am not really very fond of pouring money into

space, but some valid scientific research couldn't hurt.

I do believe that technology could make leaps and bounds in energy usage and production in areas that are not dependent upon fossil fuels.

There are some exceedingly valid areas that we could focus upon without being an empirial warmongering nation to gobble up the resources of the rest of the world and sustain ourselves.

[kutastha]

13. Well

that explains the 400,000 people trading on ebay.

[DiverDave]

14. Lucky that I kept

My CDL.
Course, I still have the 16K in school loans.
There are plenty of driving jobs, although they run your ass right up against the log book.
But, I am paying my bills. I hope the rest of ya get work soon.
There are companys that will train you, if you want to become a truck driver.

[Protected]

17. Here's the article with no registration required:

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/09/14/ap/business/d853kbrg0.txt

However, Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo Bank, says he has seen some evidence that the high-tech job market began improving in the months after this study was completed.

Overall, Sohn thinks the industry will rebound although the new jobs created might require different skills. That still leaves high-tech workers in better shape than other industries, he said.

Ah yes, that Republican spin of people needing "new skills." So now software engineers need to learn how to... flip burgers?

[barb162]

24. I know Lucent is going to lay off another 15-20% very soon

and the many tech people I know from there are struggling, scared, etc. One got very lucky by taking a contract job after looking 8 months and he is praying they will hire him full time. A lot of the Lucent people are woking part-time at Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.

[MisterP]

20. and India hasn't become a glorious beacon of prosperity;

it's almost like paying tiny wages doesn't let people buy enough to boost the economy. Why, the only Indian state with real progress is Kerala which is, um, a social-democratic welfare state...

[samtob]

21. Did we forget the dot com bubble?

http://www.fact-index.com/d/do/dot_com.html

I mean I would love to blame it on shipping ALL the tech jobs overseas, or directly on shrub. But.... (article explains it better than I can brief it here)

Other countries are experiencing or have experienced the same burt of the dot com bubble as well.