Friday, April 04, 2003


I'm confused

For the first time since writing gthis column in August 2001, I'm not sure of what to say about the New York area technology labor market. So, I think what I'll do is lay out what is confusing me.

On the one hand, I'm seeing a pickup in hiring going on. Staff level positions are starting to show up somewhat regularly again and my colleagues and I are filling them. To me, that is extremely good news because 6-9 months ago, firms were still reluctant to use recruiters and kept thinking that job boards offered the answer to low cost hiring.

On the other hand, I did a poll in my Yahoogroup, and asked how long the members have been out of work. It appears that layoffs are still going on so that the large wave of terminations is continuing. In addition, I read an article that pointed out the salaries on Wall Street were down 9% from last year (on top of previous reductions the preceding year). I'm not seeing project management or departmental positions with any regularity. From the poll, I could also see that a large percentage of people were still unemployed for more than 6 months (and for more than a year).

It looks like a bottom and the beginning of slow growth.

What are you seeing? What do you think? Email me at jeffaltman@cisny.com.

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