Posted By: Technology Staff Editor In: Information Technology written by K.C. Jones, courtesy of InformationWeek
U.S. companies continued adding IT jobs, while the country suffered huge job losses overall, according to consulting firm Foote Partners.
Non-farm payroll employment lost 598,000 jobs in January, but some IT positions bucked national trends, the company announced Friday. David Foote, CEO and chief research officer of IT workforce research consultancy Foote Partners, said last week's Bureau of Labor statistics showed that "IT professionals are faring better than most in the economic downturn."
"Nearly 9,000 jobs were added in October and November in the management and technical consulting services employment category, followed by a small dip in December," he said.
While the overall industry lost nearly 50,000 jobs in January, certain segments added jobs. More than 11,000 jobs were added in management and technical consulting services, while 200 more were added in data processing. Although jobs listed under the computer and electronics products category dropped by 8,800, an additional 700 jobs in computers and peripheral equipment, hosting, and related services were added.
"There's no sugar coating the news today that 3.6 million jobs have been lost in our country since the start of the recession in December 2007 and that the unemployment rate has been rising a steady clip and will continue to do so," Foote said. "But it's important to acknowledge that choosing IT as a profession or a career has indeed been a very smart move for millions of workers out there."
Foote's own data from the end of January showed that pay had risen for those with "skills in architecture, project management, IT security, database, networking, communications, and methodology and process skills and certifications over the previous three months.
"This is further evidence of the strong counter-trending we reported last week in our own IT workforce survey research, which is drawn from 84,000 IT professionals employed by nearly 2,000 employers in the North America," he said.
Comments
Posted by: tony nicholas
Interesting article and the same in the UK where we are still seeing many skilled vacancies being posted and there can often be a skills gap with java vacancies - so there are definitely java roles out there.
Posted by: Daemon J Thrion
"since the start of the recession in December 2007" The recession that we had been in for at least a year was acknowledged in December 2007, it did not start then.
Posted by: Tom Chiarello
What "IT Jobs" ?American companies DO NOT want to hire American Workers.American companies ARE HIRING H1B Visas over American Workers who are just as skilled and have more "hands one" work experience.And ... In the words of Walter Cronkite "That's The Way It Is".
Posted by: mike
This is crazy when the clowns installing the equipment make more than the people designing and engineering the same equipment. It's a mixed up crazy world we live in. No wonder the West is in trouble. This would never be allowed in the East.
Posted by: julio morales
wow that sounds good but if your background has a crimimal record for past mistakes your history for trying to succeed in this country what a hypricritical tactic i wish i would of known i would of said the hell with a IT cerifications and just worked 8-5 at mcdonalds...lol
Posted by: Groove
Companies are looking for people that have skill sets in the exact installation the company currently has installed. For short this may be acceptable but for any long-term improvement in companies this policty does NOT WORK.
Posted by: Beta
Mike, not sure which clowns you are referring to but you sound smart enough to understand the law of supply & demand. Construction workers have historically been paid many times more in the US than the white collar engineers. In the east the clowns are in more supply and hence. In architecting a building, technology infrastructure or any equipment you do not need as many clowns as you would to actually build/implement the sky-scaper, highway, network or whatever. Hence..
