The Internet economy should be less susceptible to an economic downturn in the United States than many other industries, according to a panel of economists and technologists convened at Google's new Washington, DC offices.
Panelist's comments included the following [sources: 1, 2, 3]:
"Yes, we are seeing an economic slowdown. No, we're not seeing an Internet slowdown."
"The Internet economy is almost counter-recessional."
IT Executive Views
Nonetheless, senior information technology (IT) executives are starting to feel pressure to contain their budgets for new projects in 2008, according to interviews with 27 CIOs and senior IT leaders.
The research was conducted by IDC, a Framingham-based company focused on market intelligence and advisory services for the information technology industry.
Despite budget constraints IT executives in the U.S. are facing real skill shortages in the following technical areas:- SAP
- .Net
- VOIP
- Java
- business analysis
- security administration
- project management
A summary of IT Executive Views: IT Priorities and Investments is available via an IDC press release. The interviews focus on large public and private companies and may not be reflective of trends in the public sector, educational organizations or small companies.
IT Employee Confidence Index
In addition, a quarterly measure of confidence among IT workers in the United States reveals a fifth consecutive decline. The index measures the following:
- how likely IT workers think it is that they will lose their job in the next year
- how likely employees are to look for a new job in the next year
- employees’ overall confidence in the economy, their employers and their ability to find other employment
A press release (pdf) summarizing the key findings of IT Employee Confidence Index for the first quarter is available from Technisource, a national technology recruiting and staffing firm with offices in Boston.
Boston Market
The Beantown Web monthly analysis of the Boston Market reveals a trend toward more cautious hiring. The Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for May and links to job postings appear in the right-hand column. Demand declined over the past month for 19 out of 20 skills. The lone exception was Photoshop.
Web designers and developers who wish to gain a competitive advantage might want to focus on honing in-demand programming skills, especially the following:
- Java | #3
- C# | #7
- ASP.NET | #11
In addition, project managers are in short supply. Demonstrating that you can lead a project team and deliver results on time and under budget will not likely go out of style any time soon.
