Demand for IT Workers Still High
IT Workers Defy the Market

Although IT job growth has slowed, it reached an all-time high in 3Q2008 of more than 3.9 million. The unemployment rate for most IT occupations remained significantly below the national overall unemployment rate of 4.7 percent in 3Q2008.

By looking at the correlation between year-over-year hourly and weekly wage changes, demand among different IT and computer sectors can be assessed.

The year-over-year hourly wage increase for all workers in September was 3.2 percent, but weekly wages were only up 1.4 percent—a strong indication that worker hours across the U.S. have been cut back.

The reverse situation (weekly wages rose faster than hourly wages) occurred in some IT/high-tech sectors, which indicates high demand in those technology categories. For example, hourly wages for workers in the Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals sector rose 8.9 percent while their weekly wages rose 17.6 percent.

On the other hand, the relationship in other IT/computer sectors seems to indicate falling demand due to the fact that weekly wage increases did not keep up with hourly raises. For example, workers in Computer Systems Design Services received, on average, a 10.5 percent raise in hourly wages in September 2008 from one year earlier. However, their weekly wages did not keep up: they were 7.1 percent higher over the previous year.

The relatively high hourly wage gain indicates high demand and low supply of workers. The lesser weekly wage growth indicates that those workers did not work as much.