IT Pros Continue to Lose Jobs

As the national unemployment rate continues to creep up, the number of jobs cut  in high-tech industries is also increasing across several IT segments tracked by Foote Partners.

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The IT workforce analyst firm commented on recently released U.S. Department of Labor statistics that show the national unemployment rate is nearing 10% with 467,000 non-farm jobs lost in June. Among the jobs being cut are many of those in high-tech industries such as communications equipment, which lost 2,100 positions in June after shedding 600 in May. About 1,100 management/technical consulting positions were lost in June, after 700 were added in May and 1,600 in April.

Potential signs of a slowdown in job cuts could be found in fewer total positions eliminated, Foote Partners suggests. The computer/peripheral equipment industry lost 2,300 jobs last month, fewer compared to the 3,200 eliminated in May. And 100 fewer positions in the computer systems design/related services segment were cut in June (2,700) than in May (2,800). And the data processing/hosting/related services industry added 600 jobs in June, after losing 3,500 positions in May.

"The computer and peripheral equipment segment lost 900 fewer jobs this time, not exactly good news but certainly some encouragement," said David Foote, CEO of Foote Partners, in a statement. "It's important to note that fewer jobs were lost in the bellwether IT job segments, 1,800 fewer than in May to be exact. It supports continued evidence of counter trending in IT employment that we've seen every month since the Wall Street meltdown last October."

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This story, "IT Pros Continue to Lose Jobs" was originally published by Network World.