IT Employment Decline Moderates in February;
Outperforms General Employment Market

Alexandria, VA, March 11, 2009 – After dropping markedly in December (56,000 jobs or 1.4%) and January (46,000 jobs or 1.15%), the decline in IT employment moderated in February dropping by (17,000 jobs or .43%), according to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), which tracks monthly IT employment.

After peaking in November with over 4 million jobs and dropping the subsequent three months, IT employment stands at 3,938,800.  Despite the drop over the last three months, IT employment was effectively flat (-.23%) year-over-year, outperforming the general employment marketplace, which shed more than 4 million jobs (-3.02%) over the same time period. 

"Given the horrific conditions in the broader economy, the decline in national IT employment is not surprising," commented Mark Roberts, CEO of NACCB. "However, when you dig beneath the national numbers, the landscape is far more complex.  There are still pockets of relative strength in IT employment in certain geographic regions, industries, and skill sets.  For example, while the national unemployment rate surged to 8.1%, the Q4 2008 unemployment rate for Computer Hardware Engineers (1.4%) and Computer Software Engineers (1.9%) remained low. Despite outperforming the general employment market, going forward, IT employment remains susceptible to a deteriorating macroeconomic environment," observed Roberts.  

The IT employment index is published by the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), the national trade association representing IT staffing and solutions firms. For complete index please visit:

http://www.magnetmail1.net/ls.cfm?r=6486710&sid=6081954&m=683066&u=naccb&s=http://www.naccb.org/employment-index/index.cfm

Technical note: NACCB's IT Employment Index is the first specific measurement of IT employment.  This unique measurement of total IT employment is created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 16 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers including the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, financial, information services, business and professional services, and education and health industries. The monthly IT Employment Index is based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, with concomitant revisions to the Index.  The IT Employment Index is also subject to annual revisions of BLS data. The IT Index was rebenchmarked in February 2008 with the publication of the BLS January 2008 employment report, reflecting significant revisions of employment data from the past several years.

Tis the season for lots of client meetings. This is the perfect opportunity with the economy slow, for one of my favorite things.. eating!! And I hate to eat alone so it's been raining client lunches! I usually keep them social and keep business talk to a minimum. However, since this has come up more than once now, I thought I'd just talk about it here.

The number one question on everyone's lips to us in the staffing world seems to be, "What are you seeing out there?"

I won't lie.

It's tough.
It's ugly.
It's slow.

But what it isn't, is dead. There's still some life in our ol' economy just yet.. although the pulse is faint, it's still breathing! I can say this with certainty because I received my 401K statement yesterday and believe it... it made money! (it was only about $23 but still.. I was so shocked, I had to sit down!) It's just one of the little triggers I'm seeing that the ignition in economy engine is turning over. In the staffing world, we are busy with contract work. As I've mentioned in the past, there's still work to be done and you need hands and brains (hopefully) to do it. It seems, as the fear is finally lifting, so are budget restrictions on projects that have been sitting idle since last year. We have calls starting to trickle in with project needs, which is a VERY promising sign!

Unemployment is always the last to recover in a recession and with it, staffing. You'll continue to see the unemployment rate rise and hear of more layoffs. Companies will hold off on hiring until they feel confident that the economy is more stabilized. But fear not, the layoffs are indeed slowing down and unemployment rate, although rising, is not going up as fast as was originally indicated. It can't rain all of the time!

So even though I've answered the #1 question here, I'm still accepting lunch invitations. Next week is booked, but I have some availability the week after...

Have a great night!