Job growth in fields like computer systems design and Internet publishing has been slow in the last year. Employment in areas like data processing and software publishing has actually fallen. Additionally, computer scientists, systems analysts and computer programmers all had unemployment rates of around 6 percent in the second quarter of this year.</p>
<p>While that might sound like a blessing compared with the rampant joblessness in manufacturing, it is still significantly higher than the unemployment rates in other white-collar professions.</p>
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<p>The chief hurdles to more robust technology hiring appear to be increasing automation and the addition of highly skilled labor overseas. The result is a mismatch of skill levels here at home: not enough workers with the cutting-edge skills coveted by tech firms, and too many people with abilities that can be duplicated offshore at lower cost.</p>
<p><snip></snip></p>
<p>Corvallis was once a hotbed for tech start-ups. But Ms. Mann said that with layoffs from other tech companies in the area, including Hewlett-Packard, the city now has a glut of people like herself: unemployed engineers with multiple degrees. I apply for everything I can find, but there are just not that many jobs out there, she said.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, many high-tech companies large and small say they are struggling to find highly skilled engineering talent in the United States.
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<p>That last quoted sentence is what enrages me. It's bulls**t! They are struggling to find highly skilled engineering talent in the United States that will work for peanuts.</p>
<p>You need to stop listening to Homer28 so much. It is bad for your health. The part of that article that makes me laugh is the line right at the begining:</p>
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<p>Let’s be honest here, if there is ANY growth at all, doesn’t that already put them ahead of the game? What other sectors have been growing the past year? Healthcare? Almost nothing has had job growth. Stop acting like the sky is falling.</p>
<p>Again, find me one engineering industry that is thriving right now. Find me one industry not called healthcare that is thriving. Honestly, everyone has it bad. Whether or not they are being hurt by the recession or not is another debate. Whose to say that they aren’t increasingly turning to cheap labor in order to avoid feeling the pinch of the recession?</p>
<p>Here’s an idea, if you suddenly hate engineering and engineers so much, then stay over in your physics forum. Just a few months ago you seemed nice and enthused about engineering. Now you suddenly spend your free time gathering articles and information that is anti-engineering? What are you even doing on this forum anymore?</p>
<p>It looks like we have a new Homer on the site.</p>
<p>Yahoo has posted: 314 jobs in the USA in the last 30 days
Amazon has posted: 487 jobs in the USA between 8/02/2010 to 9/06/2010
Lock Heed Martin posted: 2,565 jobs in the USA between 8/01/2010 to 9/06/2010
Intel has posted: 334 jobs in the USA in the last 28 days.</p>
<p>And I could go on and on</p>
<p>…But maybe the NYT is right companies are slowing down on hiring people right now</p>
<p>Very few industries are currently thriving. All the more reason to gather as much information as possible in order to make an informed decision.</p>
<p>The article highlights the labor difficulties within an industry that generally employs high-skilled workers; the article also highlights some of the events taking place within said industry such as outsourcing of jobs, difficulties locating highly-skilled engineers, etc. The article details both the side of employers and the side of workers, and details the difficulties each side is facing.</p>
<p>Connect the dots. Anyone can find recent reports about an engineering shortage; the poster above listed several companies that have posted jobs in recent months; yet, the unemployment rate for tech workers is 6%? 4 big companies, 3700 jobs, and some software developers are having trouble finding work? Something is not right.</p>
<p>Now, I do not know how you managed to extrapolate from my posts that I am now “anti-engineering”; I’d prefer if more people majored in engineering. If anything, I am anti-wishful thinking and ignoring articles such as that one or demonizing people that bring them forwards creates a false illusion that things are ok but they will get better soon. Things will improve, but it will take a while. In the meantime, it would be advisable to make sound decisions instead of ignoring market realities.</p>
<p>Btw, advising me to “stick to my forum” is not the proper way to debate these issues. In case you forgot, all engineering is derived from Physics and Mathematics, and I belong here just as much as “there.”</p>
<p>Are those “software developers” self-educated or university-educated? If those mythical companies can’t find good software developers, why don’t these companies offer the appropriate training in order to fill open positions? Were those “software developers” previously employed? If yes, how were they able to become employed in the first place?</p>
<p>One thing about giving programming tests and/or wanting programmers/software developers to recite “detailed solutions” off the top of their heads is that…</p>
<p>THIS IS NOT HOW IT IS DONE IN THE REAL WORLD</p>
<p>Most (hell almost all) software developers keep a nice stack of reference books in addition to technology-specific websites of user-groups to find out how to implement a software solution.</p>
<p>When I interview someone, I also want to know if they KNOW how/where to conduct research in order to find a solution.</p>
<p>Me?..I always have a stack of Oracle DBA/Developer books and STAY logged in to Oracle (or SQL Server) group sites to get answers.</p>
<p>My purpose was not to debate you. My purpose was to get you out of here if you are going to start pulling a homer.</p>
<p>I never said the article wasn’t fair or that it was wrong. What I am saying is that the conclusions people draw from these articles are frequently wrong. You cite the 6% unemployment rate among tech workers, but nationally, isn’t unemployment at somewhere around 11%? That doesn’t sound so bad to me. In general, the tech industry (and its workers) have still fared better than most other industries. What would make the article more interesting is if it was written at a time where the economy was merely average… not in a recession, not in a boom. That is when you could more easily gauge the effect of outsourcing or anything else on the industry.</p>
<p>As it is now, I would postulate that the only reason the tech industry seems to be relatively unscathed by the recession is precisely because they have that giant pool of cheap labor to lean on. So while they have likely been hit by the recession, they have this nice, cheap workforce to tap into if needed, and they have. Does it suck for American workers if that is the case? Sure.</p>
<p>Boneh3ad, what do you consider an average economy? </p>
<p>Nationally, unemployment is at 9% while tech sector unemployment is at 6%. Would that 6% not be considered “average” relative to national unemployment? What is the average unemployment rate for the tech sector in the last decade? And what are the correct conclusions we must arrive at?</p>
<p>You mention tech companies have a pool of cheap labor they can access; should this not be presented to others so they can make informed decisions? </p>
<p>Finally, why are you so afraid of contrarian views that you need to “get people out of these forums”? If ■■■■■■ are wrong, as they most often are, others will be capable of seeing that, no? </p>
<p>So, the article is not unfair and is not wrong. What conclusions should we reach?</p>
<p>What are you trying to prove exactly? It’s much more reasonable to think that companies still need to make money in a recession. If you knew anything about the software industry you would know how easy it is to be a programmer. Getting a certificate is like nothing; you read a book, pass a test, and all the sudden you’re a programmer. What do you expect with this system? Anyone can read a book and pass a test, that is why they’re getting outsourced. You don’t even need to think… so no it isn’t so outlandish that companies can’t find intelligent people to do the big stuff.</p>
<p>I find it hilarious how almost nobody on the engineering forum wants to debate. When someone posts anything negative about their precious profession, they want to get rid of you ASAP. WHy the fear of an honest debate? Why the rush to berry your head in the sand? </p>
<p>The article posted by the OP has it right. It might as well have bene written by me. Even when the economy improves, the jobs that have bene outsourced are NEVER coming back.</p>
<p>the NY Times article also, to a degree, backs up my comments about age discrimination. The unemployed software engineer profiled in it is 49 years old. While this 49 year old cannot find a software engineering job to save her life, we have comments like this one from the article ““We are firing up our **** college recruiting program, **** enduring all manner of humiliation to try to fill these jobs,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an online brokerage agency for buying and selling homes that is based in Seattle and San Francisco.”</p>
<p>Homer, people will debate you on this forum…that’s if you have anything to debate.</p>
<p>Look…Lock Heed Martin posted: 2,565 in the last ~30 days…that’s a good sign for engineering…hell what will happen to Lock Heed when the economy turns around…? </p>
<p>I can show you other engineering/software companies that have posted ~1,000 or more jobs each in the last 60 days.</p>