IT Worker Confidence at Lowest Point Since 2005

Reports that the high-tech industry added nearly 100,000 jobs in 2007 have done little to improve the confidence of IT workers, which, according to a new report, has hit a low not seen since 2005.

Concerns expressed by IT workers ranged from the economy and job market to their personal employment situation, according to the IT Employee Confidence Index published by Technisource, a technology placement firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Worse yet, more than half of technology workers (55 percent) believed that fewer jobs were available, up 20 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. Less than half (48 percent) were confident in their ability to find a new job.

Technisource insists that IT job demand has not waned, especially for workers with experience in .Net, Java, business intelligence and systems architecture, despite the economy edging into a slowdown.

“We continue to see demand from employers looking to fill key technology positions with highly skilled professionals. The field, in general, is extremely competitive,” said Michael Winwood, Technisource president, in a press release.

Yet analysts have conveyed a similar message to eWEEK in the past, noting that the recession is not a tech-centered one, making CIOs and budget-makers wary to cut jobs unnecessarily.

“IT might feel a pinch, but you won’t see anything like the severed limb of the dot-com bust,” Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida, told eWEEK in March.