The Recruiter

Tech Wages Drop After All-Time Highs in 2007

After hitting all-time highs in 2007, tech wages drop in the first quarter of 2008. So says the Q1 Yoh Index of Technology Wages, which we released just yesterday. First quarter wages for tech professionals dropped both year-over-year, and in comparison to those recorded in the final months of 2007, doing little, I’m sure, to boost your confidence in the economy.

And while this report does seem to paint a bleak picture, all hope is not lost. We’re still seeing pockets of strength in the tech sector, especially in SAP, Oracle, security and product development, and software and hardware engineering. Plus, the wage drop in March was not as severe as in earlier months, so hopefully that’s an indication that wages are once again on the rise.

Posted by Jim L.

Why a recession won’t affect the job market

Penelope Trunk over at The Brazen Careerist put together a pretty interesting post the other day about how our currently unstable economy is affecting the job market—or not.

Penelope argues that the state of today’s job market is not so much a function of economic indicators as it is of demographic trends. This is nothing we haven’t discussed before.  Baby boomers’ mass exodus from the workforce is resulting in a major shortage of employees that Gen X and Y are incapable to fill. (Penelope attributes this to Gen X’s focus on family and Gen Y’s fascination with entrepreneurship that lead them to contribute fewer hours of work per person than the boomers.)

Whether the economy enters a recession or not, as long as boomers continue to retire, demand for younger workers will be high. This is true even for sectors such as finance, real estate and manufacturing that are often hit hardest by economic downturns.

We’d like to add another area in which we expect to see high demand: technology. As we recently reported, the Q4 Yoh Index of Technology Wages revealed all-time high wages in the tech sector before gradually slowing at the end of 2007, and showed a continuing trend of year-over-year growth. And opportunities in engineering, Java, SAP®, project management, security and customer-related projects continue to be plentiful.

So don’t let talk of a recession scare you (when it comes to jobs, at least) -   retiring baby boomers will guarantee demand. But it’s up to you to sharpen your skills, maintain your credentials and make yourself an ideal and indispensable candidate.

Posted by Christy H.