Bureau of Labor Statistics reports big drop in tech jobs

Employment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor for the month of July, as well as its employment statistics comparing July 2007 versus July 2008, indicate a significant decline in information technology employment. Employment in the information industry declined by 13,000 in July and by 44,000 over the past 12 months. Telecommunications lost 5,000 jobs in July. Some of the lost jobs have gone to outsourcers, with companies increasingly outsourcing the lower to middle management layer of IT. The other jobs are simply going away, either due to cost-oriented automation efforts or due to increasing the remaining staff's workload. It appears that organizations are in cost-containment mode and not aggressively looking to expand technology. At the same time, there is no new must-have technology that is forcing companies to reengineer the way they are doing things.