The Tech Worker Perception Gap

Businesses are hiring more and more information-technology pros. But these workers’ confidence levels are at an all-time low.

Tech workers aren’t seeing a lot of lions in the mirror these days

Over the last year, employment for IT pros is up 10%. It’s one of the few bright spots in an economy that is otherwise shedding jobs. But techies don’t see it that way. In fact, they’re overwhelmingly negative about their prospects, according to a survey by Technisource, a tech-staffing company, which was conducted by Harris Interactive.

Of the 456 IT pros surveyed, 70% say the economy is getting weaker, one percentage point more than last quarter – although still better than the national average of 72%. Fifty-nine percent say they believe there were fewer jobs available, a four-percentage-point jump from last quarter and the same as the national average. This, despite the fact that businesses are increasing tech hiring. Techies are also increasingly skeptical about their ability to find a new job (20%) and about the future of their employers (17%). While those numbers aren’t that bad, they’re more negative than workers in other fields.

So what gives? Our guess is that techies see the headlines about the economy just like everybody else. And we don’t know this, but we suspect that demand for tech workers is strong in some places and weaker in others. But on paper, it does look like there’s a perception gap between what’s happening and what techies think is happening.

IT workers: How do you feel about your sector of the economy?

-Ben Worthen

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