The American job market is “improving”:http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1110/p17s01-coop.html
bq. In October, the economy added 126,000 new jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. September’s increase in private-sector payroll jobs was revised up to 125,000.
The article does not break down into how many jobs were created in the Technology field. But from personal experience I can tell that it is definitely improving. Many people I know are leaving their jobs and finding new ones. And that’s about 15 people in the past few months. The hourly rates for contract programmers are increasing. There are more permanent job postings as opposed to only contract jobs a few months back. Even the salaries for permanent jobs are increasing.
The golden era of the 1999 boom may not come back. But I will be happy if I could change a job with some effort.
Economy is improving
Published
Check out Ben Bernanke’s speech.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/BoardDocs/Speeches/2003/200311062/
Part of the boom was fueled by horribly over-rated Internet IPOs, so I’m hoping that particular feature of the boom never comes back..
On another note, completely unrelated to this post, I’m trolling through the Indian Blogosphere looking for submissions to the Bharatiya Blog Mela #36. So send any and all links you like my way.
Quizman, I liked his observation The combination of faster growth in demand and slowing productivity growth should lead, in the next few quarters, to increased hiring.
The increased productivity is due to the fact that people were made to work more for the same salary. Atleast in the tech sector.
Suman, I did not make any money in the previous boom. So I don’t personally mind another boom which gives me enough money to retire.