Current Unemployment Rate in the IT Industry?

concerned-about-employment asks: "What's the unemployment rate in the IT industry currently? Years ago I heard it was 8-9% but with so many jobs going offshore and the general unemployment rate rising, could it be even higher than before? Has it really broken 10% as some people say? That would mean 1 out of every 10 IT workers is out of a job. Personally though, from the perspective of a recent college graduate, it looks like 20% from here." How does the actual national unemployment rate in IT compare to the number of IT professionals that you know who are currently out of work?

Look...

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you and everybody else in your department and/or company lost your job simultaneously, chances are VERY GOOD that it's because you sucked and were gunned early on because it was relatively less painful to do so then, for instance, to go without free coffee.

If you still aren't working, chances are you should have never been in the field in the first place. There's jobs. They exist. Some of them are specialized. Some of them are stupid.

All of them will go to the person who sucks least before the manager gets fed up of looking at resume's.

If you are too proud to take a pay cut, you should have become a lawyer.

I'm US born and raised, but I spent a year in India, and I'll tell you one thing, if you want to realize how much of a PRIVILEGE it is to get paid lots of money to type, talk, and think, go spend some time in India. If we were faced with the kind of misery and suffering on a daily basis that the Indians are, well...you probably wouldn't be out of a job.

-Mano

Re:Do it as your hobby

[crazyphilman]

Funny post! Good one...

I mean, you ARE kidding, right?

Because A whole slew of articles in business magazines have been talking about how the success of outsourcing IT has given Corporate America all sorts of interesting ideas. Like outsourcing "non-core" departments, like HR, Payroll, Accounting, legal research, business forecasting and strategy, almost all of middle management...

You DID know about that, right? Cause if you weren't joking, boy are YOU in for a shock... :)

The real problem

[DevilM]

The real problem is that many in the industry simply don't know how to get a job. First, there is the group of people who were working for a company for 10+ years that got laid off. The job market is very different now than it was, so most aren't prepared. Second, people who got into the business during the boom never had to learn any real skills when it came to landing jobs, so now that companies are picky they are losing out.

The way to find a job is through networking. There is simply no better way, so if you are unemployed and not networking you might need to rethink your situation.

It's worse than that...

[Kevin Burtch]

I know people who are no longer considered to be in the IT industry as they've had to get jobs stacking boxes at Home Depot, etc.

They aren't counted since they aren't unemployed, even though they ARE unemployed from their profession.
Any IT-specific numbers you find will be wrong for this reason.

I'm not talking a 1st level phone-jockey, I'm talking about talented sysadmins with many years of experience!

College Grads Grab the Spots

[MissMarvel]

The high rate of employment in IT has been of concern to me. My neice recently graduated from Gonzaga. I worried she might not be able to find employment in her field (Computer engineering), but she was picked up almost immediately by a defense contracter in southern California. According to her, they interviewed 200 graduates and hired well over 50 of them.

It makes me think companies are opting to fill open positions with younger people whom they can hire at a much lower salary.

Re:It's worse than that...

[perljon]

It's not that simple. When an application makes a company a million dollars an hour, or looses in fines a million dollars an hour, don't you want someone that knows more than which button to click? Wouldn't you want them to know how the computer works and not just the fiddled once with the GUI that might fix the problem or make it worse? The whole IT world isn't made up of Windows file and print servers which aren't missed when they are unavailable several days per month.

Re:College Grads Grab the Spots

[/dev/trash]

Well yeah, companies have been doing THAT for years.

Re:Make sure you differentiate

[!3ren]

Unfortunately, these are the guys who generally kept their jobs as they recognized early on whose ass they had to kiss.
An important collary to the topic in discussion, would be how many people have left the IT industry simply because it is no longer worth their time.

Re:Look...

[Anonymous Coward]

If we were faced with the kind of misery and suffering on a daily basis that the Indians are, well...you probably wouldn't be out of a job.

Not to be excessivly ignorant here, but India historically has been fucked up on Religion (tm), and people get the government they deserve. If I was faced with that kind of suffering and misery, I would endeavour to change it. Or die trying. That's what happened in North America, or at least, the US.

Some places in the world suck. There are good reasons for it, and most of them involve being fucked up on Jesus (tm), or your diety of choice. Throw in political corruption to taste.

YMMV.

Re:Add one

[theonetruekeebler]

Congratulations on your degree. You are right to be proud of your accomplishment, but it's an accomplishment you share with tens of millions of others, so stop being so goddamned arrogant. In a competitive field where a college degree is an entry requirement, you are at the bottom rung of the career ladder. Very few companies are going to trust you with anything other than entry level work before giving you the opportunity to undertake some real challenges.

Also, you must reexamine how you are conducting your job search. You should have started your job hunt at least half a year before graduation. In the meantime, you are complaining bitterly after only a month of searching. You are ignoring possibilities outside your narrow criteria. You are job hunting with your ego rather than with a realistic view of how marketable your skills and background actually are. You are "firing off resumes" instead of searching for a job. Get a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute, read it, and apply its suggestions. Finally, quit acting like your shit don't stink, because plenty prospective employers could wipe their asses with your diploma for what it's worth to them without at least some real industry experience to back it up.