IT Jobs ‘Stable’ Despite Merger-Related Layoffs

Despite layoffs caused by corporate mergers, the technology job space

remained relatively stable for September.

In the overall American economy, September job cuts were 33 percent lower

than a year ago — with 71,836 layoffs compared to 107,863, according to

analysis from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement firm

based in Chicago. With two consecutive months of lower job cuts, the

third quarter saw the lowest downsizing since the second quarter of 2004.

However, the tech industry took some tough hits because of corporate

mergers.

”We have seen a pretty strong economy generally for merger and

acquisition activity,” says John Challenger, chief executive officer of

Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ”When you see that kind of consolidation,

you know that most companies don’t need duplicate headquarters, so

layoffs will follow.”

Challenger reports that more than one in seven job cuts announced this

year resulted from a merger.

Right now, the computer industry is showing more job cuts than in all of

2004. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports that there have been 61,907

layoffs in the computer industry so far this year, compared to 48,917 in

all of 2004.

”It looked like layoffs were trending upwards, but in August and

September they took a breather,” explains Challenger. ”We’re still over

8 percent ahead of last year’s pace for the first nine months, but the

last two months have been relatively flat and benign. I think that

hopefully is a good sign. I’m a little concerned that it’s just a

breather and a wait-and-see. I do feel like the economy has been slowing

and slowing.”

More Spending Means More Jobs

Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Inc., an online IT recruiting

company, says tech spending is picking up and that will influence the job

sector.

”Even with the higher oil prices and the hurricanes, tech spending still

has a lot of momentum and that’s reflected in the job market, as well,”

he says. ”There were some layoffs — PeopleSoft and Xerox — but we’re

still seeing a lot of new hiring. The one thing that continues to be

promising for tech professionals is you see the growth of full-time

positions is higher than the growth for consulting positions. Companies

are confident enough going forward that they’re bringing on people full

time.”

According to Dice’s numbers for September, the number of ‘contract’

positions being advertised on the job site was 31,310, compared to 50,603

for full-time positions.

Dice also shows: