Statistics mask tough job market
Published: 19 Aug 2004 16:40 BST
Is everybody happy?
While the Hudson employment confidence measure found tech workers slightly more optimistic than the general work force, it also found them slightly less satisfied with their current jobs. When asked, "generally speaking, are you happy with your current job," 70 percent of workers overall said yes compared with 67.7 percent of IT workers.
And those in the tech field seem more nervous about getting axed. Asked "are you worried about losing your job anytime soon," 26.1 percent of IT workers said yes, compared with 18.4 percent of workers overall.
Electrical and electronic engineers are leaving the field for lack of work, and the shift of work overseas is a serious problem, said Richard Tax, vice president of the American Engineering Association professional group. "The situation right now is not good," he said.
Tax, who also is involved with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, said a recent IEEE meeting in New Jersey offers a snapshot of the bleak job situation. Of 25 people in attendance, most of whom were electrical or electronics engineers, the majority were unemployed, Tax said.
The IEEE's US wing has blamed offshoring for contributing to high unemployment among US techies, and warned that the trend threatens the country's technological leadership. John Steadman, president of IEEE-USA and dean of engineering at the University of Southern Alabama, said offshoring is one of several reasons engineers are changing careers. Other factors pushing engineers out of the field are the importation of foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, the general economic downturn and a lack of positions that entail actual engineering work, he said.
"It tends to be that they leave engineering because they can't find the right kind of engineering job that pays a true engineering salary and involves engineering challenges," Steadman said.
Jobs will be available, but will workers?
Others are more hopeful about the future of computer careers in the United States, even in an era of offshoring. Some observers suggest jobs will exist for people who blend computer expertise with other talents, such as business savvy or management skill.
Nonetheless, students are turning away from computer science programs at a number of prominent US universities. The National Science Board, an independent body that advises Congress and oversees the National Science Foundation, recently warned of a "troubling decline" in the number of US citizens studying to become scientists and engineers, even as the number of jobs requiring science and engineering training grows.
Not everyone shares that assessment, though. A recent report from the Rand think tank found no evidence of shortages of scientific, technical, engineering and mathematics personnel in the US work force since at least 1990. The report also said it did not find evidence that such shortages are on the horizon.
For Mark Roth, the tech job market concerns him both as a worker and as a father. His daughter recently graduated from college with a computer science degree, but for months has been unable to find a job in the computer field. She's working now at a Borders book store.
"The market is just really, really that bad," Roth said.
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