MSNBC

High-tech workers will remain in demand, despite slowdown The jobs most in demand are technical-support positions By Rachel Emma Silverman THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

April 2 — The U.S. information-technology job market appears to have shifted drastically because of the economic slowdown.

EMPLOYERS WILL NEED about 900,000 new IT workers by the end of this year, down 44 percent from the previous projection of 1.6 million new workers. Still, nearly 425,000 positions likely will go unfilled, the Information Technology Association of America, or ITAA, predicts in a study expected to be released Monday. Last year, the ITAA found a shortage of about 850,000 skilled workers, or twice the current estimated deficit.

The study consisted of telephone interviews conducted during December and January with a random sample of 685 hiring managers from 191 information-technology companies and 494 nontechnology ones. Even though IT workers this year face “more-cautious hiring practices,” said Harris N. Miller, president of the Arlington, Va., trade group, the “talent gap remains large and hiring managers still predict a shortfall.” He noted that during the past six years, extensive training and education initiatives, as well as an influx of skilled foreign workers, have helped increase the supply of trained IT workers.

In October, the ITAA backed passage of a law that raised the number of skilled foreign workers allowed into the U.S. annually on H-1B visas to 195,000 from 115,000. “We’ve been banging the drums about the work-force shortage for the past six years now,” Mr. Miller said. “The trendlines are going in the right direction.” Business and technology trade groups have argued that a shortage of high-tech workers hurts U.S. competitiveness. But opponents contend the visa program takes jobs from Americans and can reduce overall pay levels by letting employers hire foreigners willing to work for lower wages. The U.S. IT work force currently numbers about 10.4 million, excluding jobs in government, nonprofit groups and companies with fewer than 50 employees, according to the study. Advertisement

The jobs most in demand are technical-support positions, which will make up 25 percent of all new posts during the next year. Demand is expected to rise 62 percent for enterprise-systems jobs — those needed to integrate disparate software systems — and 13 percent for network-administration posts. However, demand for technical writers was down by 73 percent, database administrators by 59 percent and Web developers by 25 percent. To cope with the tech-worker shortage, about half the surveyed employers said they would outsource tasks to third parties. The largest employers of IT workers aren’t in the IT industry, the study found. Indeed, non-IT companies employ 9.5 million IT workers — 10 times more than companies in the sector. Nontechnology concerns alone expect to need 640,000 IT workers this year, the study found. Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2001