ITAA Studies Show IT Job Outlook Still Gloomy

Research released this week by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) suggests that, failing a dramatic turnaround in the national economy, a recovery in the IT sector in 2003 will most likely continue to be a “jobless” one.

A telephone survey of 400 hiring managers from IT and non-IT companies nationwide found that predicted demand for hiring IT workers has reached an historic low of only 493,000 positions over the next 12 months — down from 1.6 million at the start of 2000 and less than one-half of the predicted 1.1 million positions needed at the start of 2002. Sixty-seven percent of those interviewed said they thought hiring demand would stay the same or decline over the next 12 months.

Companies are also moving more positions overseas, with 12 percent of IT companies and 3 percent of non-IT companies saying they have already opened up overseas operations. Large IT companies were most likely to say they have made the move — 22 percent have already moved work offshore. Additionally, 15 percent of IT firms say they will, or are undecided about, moving jobs overseas in the next 12 months, while 4 percent of non-IT firms say the same.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents already outsourcing IT work overseas say that jobs most likely to be moved offshore are programming or software engineering positions, followed by 37 percent moving network design and 30 percent moving web development jobs.

The ITAA annual survey placed the size of the U.S. IT workforce at 10.3 million, with hiring and terminations amounting to less-than-one-percent growth during the first quarter of 2003 and the IT workforce growing by 86,000. While that may be good news, it is below fourth quarter 2002 growth, which added 97,000 jobs, the slowest quarterly growth in 2002.

Percentage of Women, Minorities in High Tech Workforce Down

A separate ITAA study released this week finds that racial minorities and women lost ground in IT employment between 1996 and 2002, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Surveys.

Among the key findings of the report is the percentage of women in the overall IT workforce fell from 41 percent to 34.9 percent between 1996 and 2002. The percentage of African Americans in the overall IT workforce also fell from 9.1 percent to 8.2 percent during the same period. However, when administrative positions were removed from consideration, the percentages of both groups rose slightly over the six years. The percentage of women IT professionals rose from 25 percent to 25.3 percent of the workforce, and the percentage of African American IT professionals rose from 6 percent to 6.2 percent.

The ITAA findings indicate that the groups still are underrepresented in the IT workforce as compared to their representation in the whole U.S. workforce. Women comprised 46.6 percent of the U.S. workforce and African Americans represented 10.9 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2002.

The data were presented in a report by ITAA’s Blue Ribbon Diversity Panel, convened to examine the current state of women, minorities, people with disabilities and older workers in the IT workforce. The report represents an update of a previous ITAA report released in 1998, examining the same topic, and also presents a discussion of barriers to entry in IT. Three major solutions for improving diversity within the IT industry are presented:

• Greater commitment from corporate leadership.
• Increased corporate outreach and mentoring. And,
• Stronger partnerships between IT companies and colleges and universities.

ITAA provides global public policy, business networking and national leadership to promote the continued rapid growth of the IT industry. Both reports described above are available at http://www.itaa.org/.