[LINK] The case of the phantom jobs

[Chirgwin, Richard]

Question:
If the skills shortage was hyped, can we really trust our weight to every
tale of woe? Is an oversupply number of 8000 more trustworthy than 2001's
undersupply of 30,000?

A lot of the undersupply was as ephemeral as the dotcom boom which created
it. A dotcom needed to convince investors that it was moving, even when it
had neither a product nor a business plan to move with ... "ahh, but we have
60 developers, just keep shovelling money in and something will come out the
chute RSN."

Without disparaging any individual in the pool of unemployed developers, be
it 500 or 50,000, is it also feasible that at least some of the
now-unemployed developers are people who 'skilled up' to fill dotcom spots,
only to find that their skills have no real value in a business environment?
"I think we have enough people able to write Web pages using MS Front Page,
thank you."

PS: who was most guilty of inflating the skill shortage figures? The
headhunters. Surprise surprise...

Richard Chirgwin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bernard Robertson-Dunn [mailto:brd@austarmetro.com.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, 4 September 2002 09:15
> To: Link
> Subject: [LINK] The case of the phantom jobs
> 
> 
> The case of the phantom jobs
> Caitlin Fitzsimmons, Analysis
> SEPTEMBER 03, 2002  
> The Australian
> http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,5022222%5E1530
> 2%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
>  
> AUSTRALIA'S IT professionals are hurting, and recent 
> announcements from
> Indian technology giant Infosys and the Victorian government 
> won't help
> much.
> 
> The hi-tech jobs crisis is acute. Unemployment in the sector 
> trebled from
> August 1998 to August 2001 and the pool of unemployed computer
> professionals has ballooned to more than 8000. The Victorian 
> Government has
> welcomed the decision of Infosys to locate a software 
> development centre in
> Melbourne, saying it would create "100 new jobs" for software 
> engineers.
> Unfortunately, it won't. At least 60 of the 100 staff will 
> come from India.
> 
> ...
> 
> For too long, the Federal Government has swallowed industry propaganda
> about an IT skills shortage of between 30,000 and 50,000 people. It is
> questionable that the skills shortage ever existed, and even 
> its proponents
> now acknowledge the figure was always "grossly inflated".
> 
> Yet the Government took the bait and the Australian Computer 
> Society - the
> body meant to represent the interests of IT professionals - did not
> challenge it.
> 
> ...
> 
> -- 
> If work were good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor.
> --Haitian Proverb
> 
> Regards
> brd
> 
> Bernard Robertson-Dunn
> Canberra Australia
> brd@austarmetro.com.au
> ----------
> For Link list information see http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/link/
> 
----------
For Link list information see http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/link/