IT sector adds jobs despite economic turmoil

Surprising new findings from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the IT profession may be in far better shape than the job market as a whole.

About 240,000 jobs were lost nationwide in October, and unemployment rates rose from 6.1% to 6.5%. Yet the IT profession actually grew in this time of layoffs. About 5,500 jobs were added in the category of computer systems design and related services, and another 300 jobs were added in the category of management and technical consulting services.

“They grew when everybody else is shrinking. That must tell you something,” says David Foote, co-founder, CEO and chief research officer of Foote Partners, a research group that tracks IT salary and skills. “It’s amazing that those numbers are not flat or going in the other direction.”

IT jobs were slashed in huge numbers during the major economic downturn of 2001 to 2003, Foote points out. The instinct back then was to fire IT people because they were viewed as overhead. What’s changed since then is that large portions of the IT budget have moved into the lines of business, and companies are thinking about IT as it relates to profit and loss, rather than simply looking as IT as an expense, he says.

“More and more IT jobs gravitated into functional specialties,” Foote says. “You weren’t just a programmer. You were a person who was part of a team doing marketing or finance and accounting. You were now part of a functional group within the company.”

If IT workers are seen as enabling the business through technology and improving the bottom line, rather than simply providing a service, they should be more likely to survive job cuts.

Foote says you could argue this trend can also work the other way. If a line of business becomes less profitable in any given quarter, then IT folks could be vulnerable just like sales and marketing reps. But at least in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show tech jobs were saved from the general bloodletting that’s ongoing as America sinks into recession.

Lots of businesses have already outsourced purely technical jobs over the last several years, Foote says. IT pros that remain are often architects, analysts, project managers, specialists in key applications like CRM and ERP, or involved in customer-facing duties, Foote says.