High-tech employment decline slows, but students prefer basket weaving
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/1/2004 6:00:00 AM
The dot-com bust caused heavy casualties in programmer ranks, and somewhat soured the appetites of college undergraduates thinking to declare majors in computer science. But despite outsourcing trends making those already with jobs nervous about long-term security, there are signs of improvement.
Job cuts in high tech slackened significantly in first-quarter 2004 over the previous quarter, according to Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. First-quarter cuts were 65-percent lower than the more than 82,000 jobs cut the previous quarter, and 52-percent lower than the 61,000 cuts the same quarter in 2003. Overall, technology cuts represented a little more than 11 percent of the nearly 263,000 job cuts announced across the board in all industries during the first quarter of the year.
The U.S. Department of Labor's February report on job prospects in the computer science field through 2012 also was upbeat, given the right experience and credentials. It projected there would be "much faster than average growth" through 2012 (greater than 36 percent) in job categories for computer system analysts, database administrators, and computer scientists. On the other hand, it projected only "as fast as average" (10 to 20 percent) growth for computer programmers in general.
Those in the field face more rather than less competition, according to Computing Research Association (CRA), a Washington-based industry/academia group. CRA reports undergraduates declaring majors in computer science declined 23 percent between 2002 and 2003—from 23,033 to 17,706. The number of bachelor's degrees awarded in 2003 in computer science and engineering likewise suffered a drop of 3 percent, falling just under 20,000.
This decline in interest at the university level is of concern to many industry watchers. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is putting the finishing touches to a report on the need to bolster support for education in the field to preserve an "ecology of innovation" fundamental to the long-term health of the national economy. This report is slated for summer release.
