“I think we are on the cusp of change, where things are beginning to ease up,” Schafer says. “In general, people are optimistic,
but in some ways it still feels like a recession because jobs lag behind the rest of the economy. And you see that where the
IT workforce is concerned. By the end of 2004 it will be quite a different situation. By mid-2005, there will be quite a demand
for IT,” she says.
Some suggest that part of the nascent recovery derives from increased government spending, particularly on anti-terror measures.
Homeland Security outlays helped Roger Quarles, IT system manager of the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency, launch
a long-awaited IT upgrade this year.
“In the last several years, we haven’t had the finances to upgrade our IT systems,” Quarles says. This year, the agency is
deploying a new wireless backbone for emergency communications. The agency has also been able to keep pay for IT employees
steady. “Our salaries are in step with the government pay scale in the rest of county government,” he says.
Easing job worries
A brighter picture of staffing issues also seems to be emerging, where hiring freezes, layoffs, and salary freezes are less
common.
When asked what staffing issues they expect to face in the next 12 months, 21 percent of respondents said they expected to
deal with a hiring freeze, down from 42 percent who said they actually faced the issue in the past 12 months, and 49 percent
who reported in the mid-2003 survey that they had faced the issue in the previous 12 months.
Similarly, 21 percent of respondents expected layoffs in the next 12 months, down from 37 percent who faced it in the last
12 months and 44 percent in last year’s survey. Likewise, 18 percent of respondents said they expected to face a salary freeze
in the coming year, down from 28 percent who faced it in the past 12 months and 30 percent in the mid-2003 survey.
But improving numbers don’t make waiting for the upturn any more pleasant when you need a job. Just ask Brad Mitchell.
Mitchell worked for seven years as a full-time information systems consultant at Bookspan, a marketer of book clubs such as
Book-of-the-Month Club, until he was laid off in May 2003. After five months, he found work at the state of Pennsylvania’s
Department of Transportation — until March, when the program he worked on was completed.
“I think there is a glut in the market [of available IT professionals],” Mitchell says. He was making a salary in the mid-$80,000
range when he was let go by Bookspan. “There are so many people out there on the street that companies right now can get what
they want.
“Companies seem unwilling to make an investment of their own. They want people to walk in the door with exactly the skill
set they are looking for,” Mitchell adds. He has worked in a variety of positions, including as a programmer and a project
manager.
Such conservative hiring practices may be on the decline. Tim Dion, CTO of IT consulting company Riverton, says he plans to
hire 10 to 12 people for his company, which employs slightly less than 100 people.
“The demand for workers is going up,” Dion says. “We are fully utilized right now, and we have a backlog of work to keep us
busy going forward.” Although there are available workers, Dion is willing to pay for the right set of skills. “We are paying
competitively,” he says.
Many of those lucky enough to be employed through the down years have confidence that their jobs are safe. When asked how secure they felt in their jobs, 51 percent answered they felt secure, and another 23 percent “absolutely
secure.” Only 19 percent said they were concerned about job security, and 6 percent said they could be laid off at any time.
A decent wage, all things considered
Job security is one thing; satisfaction is another. Our respondents were slightly less happy about what they were being paid
than they were in the recent past. When asked if they were fairly compensated, 51 percent said yes, compared with 41 percent
who said no. Last year, 53 percent said they were fairly compensated and 40 percent they were not. In 2002, 56 percent they
were compensated fairly while 37 percent said they were not.
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