In light of all the lay offs going on within the Information Technology industry as of late, I thought we should briefly discuss the effects that this industry shift will have on the future of the Information Technology labour market. Where I am really trying to take this post is in the following direction – if the Information Technology sector keeps crashing, who’s going to want to join it in the future?


Getting students to join the IT field in school has always been a hot topic in recent years. How to motivate students to join a market that has proven to be constantly changing and always in a state of flux is no easy question. Organizations and companies currently exist to help promote these issues. Take Wesley Clover for example who’s main business is the business of building businesses by taking experienced leaders and management staff and applying them to technology ideas of new grads. Organizations like the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) helps to keep students up-to-date with current IT / IM issues.


While these organizations do help to push IT into the minds of students to help build the labour market for the future, I can not help but wonder if that is going to be enough? As someone watching the market from the sidelines at the moment, I am curious as to who wants to join this market. This is the second time in my life I have seen the IT sector go into a recession. Granted this time it isn’t just the IT sector that is in a recession but still, IT is in a recession.


Briefly touching on yesterdays’ point about supply and demand - if the IT market does return to the levels it was at a year ago but new undergraduate students are afraid to join the field due to the uncertainty it can bring, we will eventually run into another situation where there is not enough supply of candidates to fill the demand employers will have on market. Driving market value for positions back up and creating that ‘what is in it for me’ mentality all over again.


People will undoubtedly continue to study in the IT field. I once took an introductory class on Object Oriented Programming at University and did realize that some people just love and understand IT regardless of the market conditions. But for someone sitting on the fence in regards to diving head first into the IT field, they must be asking themselves if the lure to large salaries out weighs the cost of working in a market that has not proven to be overly stable.


For the time being, I am glad to be playing in the shallow pool…



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