The Change Mariner

Lingering Job Insecurity of Silicon Valley

New York Times:

For computer scientists and engineers, the 1990's were close to paradise - until the technology boom collapsed. But even as business has started to pick up again, the job market they operate in has become the toughest ever.

While this group represents a comparatively affluent sliver of the American work force, it illustrates the broader forces - higher productivity, cost-cutting business practices and increased global competition - that have combined to make job growth throughout the American economy so frustratingly sluggish.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that the economy added just 21,000 jobs last month, another disappointing performance, particularly when the economy has been growing strongly since the summer and corporate sales and profit are rising.

Well-educated technology workers have long been at the forefront of American economic growth and innovation, used to working in a field where rapid change is the rule. As markets shift, new technologies emerge and companies die. Yet such changes typically meant little more to these employees than moving rather easily from one well-paying opportunity to the next.

That is no longer the case.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at March 9, 2004 07:11 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Industry - Internet | Industry - Semiconductor | Industry - Software | Quadrant - Economic | Theme - 'Offshoring Technology Work'

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