There Is *Still* an IT Shortage

by Ed Yourdon

Most of us who skim through the IT-related stories in the trade journals and the mainstream newspapers are under the impression that this has been a very bad year for IT employment. Silicon Valley is like one large cemetery; dot-com kids have been on the unemployment lines for so long that their benefits are running out; and highly skilled foreign professionals who entered the country on H-1B visas are going home in steadily increasing numbers. Someone told me a couple weeks ago that the unemployment rate for the IT industry is now higher than that of the country as a whole -- and while this may be urban folklore, it's hard to avoid asking the question: is the IT shortage over?