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-----Original Message-----
From: Lurker writer [mailto:lurker_writer -at- hotmail -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 12:18 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Is IT growth slowing?
<snip>
According to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) 2001
Workforce Report (released in early April), there's a 44% decline in demand
for IT workers from 2000 to 2001, but of the 900,000 IT jobs available in
2001, only 425,000 will be filled (leaving 475,000 unfilled).
</snip>
As a former Y2K project team member, I wonder how much of that 44% decline
in demand came from the closure of IT Y2K projects across the board
(hmm...).
There were folks working on IT Y2K project teams who normally did not work
in the IT industry, thus inflating the IT employment percentages. When they
were laid off in January 2000, many went back to nonIT jobs. Also, many
folks (a.k.a. legacy system programmers) came out of retirement (consulting
at $300+ an hour) to help out on those Y2K teams. When they were laid off,
they returned to retirement (some of them).
Maybe I'm overly optimistic, however, in my heart-of-hearts I still believe
the market for technical writers (over the long haul) is going to be a good
market. It will be _different_ than the one we experienced from 1998 to the
present. I have no employment/business analyst to quote. I just believe that
the IT industry is experiencing a "reality" correction that was very much
needed. As businesses adjust to whatever their reality is, I believe they'll
still need us to document their products.
One caveat: I am wondering about the decade when "we" achieve an effective
wireless and hand-held device world. If the UIs are as intuitive as my Nokia
cell phone, which I love BTW, then technical writers may need to be flexible
and able to hop into a different industry where documentation is still
needed.
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