IT And Media Cut 13,000 Jobs In July

Source: Information Week

It was the biggest one-month decline in more than year, as publishing houses and tech firms implemented cutbacks driven by declining ad revenues, industry consolidation, and offshoring.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
August 8, 2008 11:15 AM


The U.S. economy's technology and media sectors shed 13,000 jobs in July in its biggest one-month decline in more than year, according to the federal government, as publishing houses and tech firms implemented cutbacks driven by declining ad revenues, industry consolidation, and offshoring.

Information industry employment, which includes jobs in traditional and online publishing, as well as software publishing, telecom, and data processing, declined a half-percent from 2.996 million to 2.983 million over the course of July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

The telecommunications industry alone lost 5,000 jobs in the month, the government said. Overall, the information sector has lost 44,000 jobs over the past year.

Several factors are contributing to the downturn.

A slowdown in advertising is hitting both print and Web publishers. Omnimedia, which publishes the online and paper editions of Martha Stewart Living, cut 25 jobs this week, according to the New York Post. Earlier this week, Playboy Enterprises, which publishes Playboy Magazine and Playboy.com, said first-quarter revenue was off 14%.

Tech firms are also feeling the squeeze as the industry consolidates and customers reduce spending. InformationWeek recently reported that 67% of IT professionals said their companies would either cut tech spending in 2008 or, at best, maintain the previous year's levels. The full report can be downloaded here (registration required).










Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/trends/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210000319&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

I've been unemployed since May of 2007; the small agency I worked for was run into the ground by new owners too stupid and arrogant to tell any of us what was up. Six months later the whole company went down the tubes.

The previous year, I was laid off because that agency thought that having two inexperienced people for the same price as one experienced person was a better value for their money. Within three months all of the remaining experienced people in that department had quit.

Client-side isn't hiring because they've laid off so many people w/20+ years of experience, they can pick and choose who to pull in as contractors. Everyone who still has a job (doing the work that 5 people did 3 years ago) is scared shitless and puts up with anything.

Agency-side would rather have people who don't know shit so they don't have to pay them shit. The bosses think they know everything and are therefore the only ones who deserve decent money. When things go great, they take the credit; when things tank, they blame the people who don't know anything, and use it as an excuse to not give them a raise, or lay them off to fatten the bottom line.

The last job I applied for sent me a rejection email in less than 24 hours. Their reason? I didn't have experience managing *off shore* development teams!!

:rofl:

We are so fucked.

:rant:

I lost my tech career in 2001. I'm just about to start a new one in teaching. I'm pretty sure they won't be outsourcing those jobs.

sorry to hear about your job experiences of late. We can relate. We're in media. Moved across country for jobs. one was a start up that ran itself into the ground. Media is SLOW right now, except for network stuff and even that stuff I'm surprised about because the networks are all "suffering" according to the bs they feed our unions. yeah, right. Wish you all the best. Hang in there.

software firm headquartered in Cary, NC. He came in the day after New Year's and, along with 3/4
of the tech support department, was laid off and escorted out of the building. The company hired
contract workers to replace them while they worked out moving tech support to India.

He got another tech support job within 5 weeks, and is due to find out this Monday whether he'll be moved from 6 month probationary status to permanent. We all have our fingers crossed.