<p>In short, yes, I predict that all the software companies will have to raise compensation to get top talent. </p>
<p>What I think is that there will be a dichotomy. The strong computer engineers, meaning the ones that have the skills and the motivation that companies want, will do quite well. However, the sad fact is, there really are a lot of people in the industry who, quite frankly, aren't very good. A lot of them have no passion for technology and no motivation to do hard work. They just entered the industry during the dotcom boom when you really could get a high-paying job if you had a pulse, and they made a lot of easy money that would never have been able to make in a normal economy. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge people making easy money. Everybody wants easy money. The problem comes when these people, who would never have gotten hired into the industry at all if not for the dotcom boom, then got used to the easy money and started treating it as an entitlement. Then when they get their salaries reduced or get laid off, they whine incessantly at the unfairness of it all, not knowing (or, more accurately, not wanting to know) that they would never have gotten computer jobs in the first place if not for the one-time boom.</p>