Total number of software engineering jobs declined 15% in last 4 months!

[dumpster_baby]

Software engineers, our profession is dying. According to government data, the total number of software engineers working in America declined by 15% in the 2nd quarter (from March to June) of 2004.

Read 'em and weep:

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It is really disturbing that this job loss may have occurred in the absence of a recession. The conventional definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. However, on July 30 the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the revised GDP data for 2001, and the recession, as conventionally measured, has disappeared. The revised data does not show two consecutive negative quarters, and for 2001 the economy grew 0.8%. Did we experience not only a job loss recovery, but also a job loss nonrecession?

There was no recession in the second quarter of this year, but BLS data show 131,000 fewer American computer software engineers employed in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2004--a decline of 15% in three months. Employment of computer scientists and systems analysts declined by 51,000 in the second quarter. Employment of computer programmers fell 16,000.

The decline in high-tech professions in the US is also reflected in the collapse in computer engineering enrollments in America’s premier engineering schools. Over the past several years, M.I.T., Georgia Tech, and UC Berkeley have experienced computer engineering enrollment declines of 43%.

More unprecedented bad news comes from the Internal Revenue Service. For the first time ever, the real incomes of Americans shrank for two consecutive years. In 2002 Americans reported 9.2% less income than in 2000.
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More from Vdare (warning: a right wing paleo-conservative website):

http://vdare.com/roberts/colossus.htm

[physioex]

1. WOOW....

That is some scary stuff. All high technology is leaving this country, and we fast becoming a Banana Republic......

[LibDemAlways]

2. Only software jobs in this country

safe from outsourcing are ones that require a government clearance. It's a damn shame that people have to be willing to sell their souls to the defense industry to find good paying software jobs in the US.

[Veggie Meathead]

3. It is not just software jobs that are at risk.The latest issue of

Scientific American (August) talks about major pharmaceutical companies starting to do clinical trials and R&D in India.Pfizer,Eli Lilly,Bristol Myers and a few others were mentioned in the article.They say that clinical trials in India cost less than 20% of the cost in India.The article goes on to say that Ph>D. scientists in India will take over the R& D functions of many pharmaceutical companies.Does the word hollowing out ring a bell?

In another thread this morning, I read that the real incomes of Americans declined by 9.2 % over the last two years according to the IRS.It looks like our biggest export will be our jobs.

[dumpster_baby]

4. maybe it might be OK if biotech research is outsourced

After all, that is "mission critical" stuff--it could save our lives. Heck, maybe even a cure for cancer. Still, it sucks, right?

[bemildred]

5. All middle-class-income knowledge workers are at risk.

If you don't have to be there to do your job,
to the extent you don't have to be there to do your job,
you too can be replaced with cheap 3rd world labor.