New Year Rings in Anxiety for More IT Pros
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2008 is starting with higher pay yet more insecurity among IT workers. According to the latest monthly Hudson Employment Index, fewer expect hiring at their company, and more IT workers expect job cuts at their company and say they are worried about job security. But the survey's results also register end-of-year raises: A higher percentage say their finances are improving. |
Here are the numbers:
The index for IT workers fell 6.1 points to 97.4 in December, the third consecutive month the index fell. The index was 109.8 last December, so the latest fall is not just a 12-point drop from a year ago, but makes up half of that drop. The survey also found -- quoting here from the announcement:
There was a six-point drop to 28 percent among employees forecasting hiring.
Nineteen percent of the work force expected job cuts at their company in the coming months, up from 16 percent in November.
More workers were worried about job security in December (24 percent) than in November (22 percent).
On the positive side, there was a three-point jump to 42 percent among workers who said their finances were improving.
The number of employees who described their finances as "excellent" also rose from 16 percent in November to 19 percent in December.
To put it in perspective: IT workers are better off and more confident than other employees; the index for all employees is 87.3. There can also be strong regional differences. Workers, in general, are much more confident in Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, D.C., and Boston than in Philadelphia and San Francisco. But IT workers don't tend to compare themselves with other workers; they look back to their own experience within their own profession. Recent raises are not enough to boost morale or ensure that nervous employees won't jump ship, not when cuts in IT spending are likely at many companies. If recruitment and retention are important for you -- and it is an important issue according to our own data and the Society for Information Management -- IT executives and managers should make it a point to reassure and show appreciation to their valued employees they want to retain, especially when there's bad news about the economy or their company. For more ways to keep IT workers happy, click here.
