Employment in the computer field

The number of computer-related positions has grown rap-idly over the past few decades. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by the mid-1990s the fastest-growing professions in the United States included systems analysts, computer scientists, and computer engineers. By the mid-2000s, computer-related occupations were still near the top of the list, which by then also included network and com-munications analysts (second only to “home health aids”).

Computer-related employment can be broken down into the following general categories:

•  hardware design and manufacturing, including com-puter systems, peripherals, communications and net-work hardware, and other devices

•  the software industry, ranging from business applica-tions to consumer software, games, and entertainment

•  the administrative sector (systems administration, network administration, database administration, computer security, and so on)

•  the Web sector, including ISPs, Web hosts and page developers, and e-commerce applications

•  the support sector, including training and education, computer book publishing, technical support, and systems repair and maintenance

In addition to these “pure” computer-related jobs, there are many other positions that involve working with PCs. These include word processing/desktop publishing, statis-tics, scientific research, accounting and billing, shipping, retail sales and inventory, and manufacturing. (See also programming as a profession.)

Job Market Considerations

In the late 1990s, a number of sources forecast a growing gap between the number of positions opening in computer-related fields and the number of new people entering the job market (estimates of the gap’s size ranged into the hun-dreds of thousands nationally). Particularly in the Internet sector, demand for programmers and system administrators meant that new college graduates with basic skills could earn unprecedented salaries, while experienced profession-als could often become highly paid consultants. Despite the growing emphasis on computing in secondary and higher education, computer science and engineering candidates were in particularly short supply. As a result, many com-panies received permission to hire larger numbers of immi-grants from countries such as India.

The “dot crash” of 2001–2002 saw a sharp if temporary decline in demand for computer professionals, particularly in the Web and e-commerce sectors, but it impacted hard-ware sales as well. The industry then saw a resurgence, but with an emphasis on somewhat different skill sets. Skills in strong demand toward the end of the 2000 decade include:

•  detection, prevention, and investigation of computer attacks (see computer crime and security and com-puter forensics)

•  improvements in operating system and software security

•  use of open-source software and operating systems (see open-source movement and Linux)

•  surveillance and physical security (see biometrics)

•  transaction analysis for both security and marketing applications (see data mining)

•  e-commerce applications and management (see cus-tomer relationship management)

•  rapid development of efficient, highly interactive Web services (see Ajax, Web 2.0 and beyond, and script-ing languages)

•  hardware and software for mobile and wireless devices (particularly delivery and integration of media)

•  content management for Web sites and media services

•  scientific computing, particularly genetic and biologi-cal applications (see bioinformatics)

On the other hand, with the successful passing of the Y2K crisis, the outlook for mainframe programmers (par-ticularly using COBOL) is increasingly dim. Prospects are also poor for certain operating, network, and database sys-tems with declining market share (such as OS/2, Novell networking, and some older database systems). It is true that as baby boomer programmers retire, there will be some demand for maintenance or conversion of obsolescent systems. Finally, as global trends toward outsourcing and relocating of lower-level support and even programming continue, it may become harder for domestic workers to begin to climb the IT ladder.

Socially, the key challenges that must be met to ensure a healthy computer-related job market are the improvement of education at all levels (see education and computers) and the increasing of ethnic and gender diversity in the field (which is related to the fostering of more equal educa-tional opportunity), and adapting to changes in the global economy (see globalism and the computer industry).