The IT worker's Wall Street meltdown worry list

The only thing that seems clear today is that the United States is in a recession and possibly a bad one. No one is certain what will happen next. Events are changing almost by the hour. How much help will a federal bailout deliver to the nation's financial system, which has been hard-hit by the downturn? Will more financial institutions collapse, and how far down will the stock market go? Will you have a job?

What follows is a summary, in the form of an FAQ, about what we know so far about the impact of this crisis on one of the most important of areas in tech, namely, your job.

[ Learn more about how the financial crisis is affecting IT and the high-tech industry, plus what IT can do to help, in InfoWorld's special report. ]

If you lose your job will you find a new one? It's obviously not going to be easy. The Corporate Executive Board in Washington surveyed 50 CIOs, and nearly 25 percent said they have imposed a hiring freeze, and half said they are cutting spending on consultants and contractors.

Many of the resumes arriving in human resources departments will list financial services experience. This industry accounts for 20 percent of global IT spending, says research firm IDC. And it is shedding jobs by the thousands, 103,000 jobs overall this year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

But some skills will always do well in this market. SAP techs are in demand. Financial services may shed midlevel IT managers, but Mary Price, a manager in the technology division of Russell Reynolds Associates Inc., a New York-based executive recruiter, said she expects increasing demand for people in this sector who can integrate platforms and improve risk management systems.

Relocating may help. Unemployment may be 6.1 percent nationally, but in Northern Virginia, where there are large numbers of private sector tech jobs serving the federal government, unemployment is 3.6 percent, up from 2.4 percent a year ago. Check with recruiters. Jill Herrin, president and CEO of JDResources, an IT recruiting firm in Memphis said last week that demand for IT talent "is extremely high."