One thing I think will start happening soon is that the rapid expansion of computer jobs in the economy will start drying up soon. (And all jobs.)

I was talking with a few friends at my former employer who largely have Y2K beat (they've been working on Y2K since 1996), and he's telling me that they're in the middle of a hiring freeze.

I think the attitude by April 1 is going to become:

"We have all the people we can afford for Y2K, stop hiring, stop training, slow down travel expenses. If we don't have it by now, we're not going to get it."

By the end of the year, if you become unemployed, don't be surprised if you're happy to be working at McDonalds.

What frightens me is that I work for a big software company and I just don't see a lot of late '99 sales because the companies just won't be spending the money, unless the product fixes a Y2K problem (ours is already Y2K).

-- Glen Austin (gdaustin@aol.com), February 06, 1999

Answers

Certainly a possibility. Once the economy starts to head south, companies will begin to cut back. Just like in the early 1990's.

-- (Dawnbringr@aol.com), February 06, 1999.

Naturally, if business heads "south", hiring will slow/stop...

...But - the current expansion of people mindlessly programming in 3rd-generation languages to fix ancient code (COBOL, FORTRAN, C/C++, Assembler) will change to a new "paradigm". Higher-level tools, such as for Software Engineering (Rational Rose), Database Design (Designer, ErWin), OLAP (Business Objects, Express) and Warehousing (good tools are rare) will become more important. A lot of really great technology is available, but too few people have a clue as to how to use it.

A lot of progress in moving to new technologies was halted for Y2K last year. If the economy survives Y2K, the new technologies will be in demand, and the old 3rd-generation programming will be sent overseas, or handled by dirt-cheap foreign labor in countries such as the US.

Learn the new stuff!

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous.com), February 06, 1999.

Coca Cola did not renew their contract with Arco Arena, Sacramento, CA because it cut back on their advertising budget to use elsewhere in CocaCola's business. Anyone here think they are using those funds for their Y2K remediation? PepsiCola got the contract.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 06, 1999.

bardou ; Coke had the contract for the Olympics and I think lost it or withdrew because of the scandal. As to heir spending concerning Y2K it's possible they are saving those monies for testing and preperation. Oh, good to hear from you got all your messages... Thanks, Furie.....

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), February 07, 1999.

-- a (a@a.com), February 13, 1999.