I saw an interesting tidbit this morning. First, it looks as though most IT workers are in the south. I'm assuming Texas makes up the bulk of this. Second (and third), database administration looks like it's a strongly declining field - ~2% in field (smallest), ~7% of unemployed (largest). I guess, now that I think about it, there aren't too many where I work. From what I've seen, programmers or system admins seem to do most DBA work on a part-time basis. Don't get me wrong, I think a good DBA is important; but, I would rather have a shit-hot programmer and a pretty good DBA than vice-versa. There are always situations where you might need the latter, but I think the former is more fitting for most situations.