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Agree M_a_r_k. Its all about perceptions and work locale thrown into the mix as well.

The biggest problem that I can see as a executive isn't the lack of jobs or the lack of people to fill those jobs its keeping the people abreast of the technology needed to be applied to those jobs. Sure I could hire any schmuck off the street and declare them to be an Oracle developer but if that person never saw a computer do anything but email is that person still an Oracle Developer even if I say so? Thats the problem many businesses are confronted with on a daily basis. Also why you see two answers to the same analysis. Too few jobs! Too few people to do too few positions. Its about slicing the data cube. Remember this: Figures lie and liars figure. Give me enough statistics and I'll also prove that the Earth is flat; Humans came from Mars and that there are little green men living under your bed. Ahhh... the power of statistics. I'm joking of course but you get the drift, I hope.

For IT folks everywhere, its a delicate and fine balnacing act to stay abreast of all the latest and greatest hardware and software packages. After the dot com bust (predicted well in advance by yours truly), we had a recession shedding lots of borderline businesses and there staff. You wouldn't believe the number of completely unqualified resume's I recieved from folks with titles like VP of Web Enabled Sales or VP of Actualization. What the heck do those mean? References to jobs or such like that - nonesense. Most of these folks didn't even have 4 year degrees and were making $150,000+ annually. Just nuts. So many of them went the way of the dodo - extinct in the form of an IT career.

Long term fellows of DP/IS/IT will tell you that IT is and has always been cyclical. Complain if you want but thats the way its always been and will continue to be for the forseeable future. The biggest challenge for all IT, once Data Processing, later Information Systems is to keep learning the newest most in demand packages. No matter if your a security geek; a developer or a network manager. You have to stay abreast in your field or suffer the consequences of eventual carreer nullification and or burnout from trying to learn and retain too much. Trust me its not pretty thing to see - burnout. Been there, done that with Y2K. Thats why I always tell people to try managing that balance. Oh yeah. Business wants us to become automatons and no longer specialize. Hello! We are specialist. Not marketers. Not Salespersons. Not Accountants. We are technically specialized professionals. If you want us to understand business, your business, the competitions business then you'll have to train us in that as well!

/* Rant over */

Theres nothing happening here in IT that isn't happening in any other industry. It just seems like theres more of it here because our cycles are so much more dense than in other fields. We live under a microscope on a daily basis. Consider that the average 'computer year' is generally considered to be 4.5:1 in comparison to other more normal fields and you'll quickly see why IT is not for the feint of heart. Still, theres nothing else I'd rather do.

- beads

The supply-and-demand relationship will tell you that a shortage in demand for brains should result in an oversupply of brains. Or a shortage in the supply of brains will result in higher demand for brains. So much for theories....

It does not work very well in the areas where creativity, knowledge, innovation, and resourcefullnes are the main commodities.

Economics was not "invented". It is a science just like mathematematics or biology. It is used to explain real-life market forces and production and consumption of goods and services. The supply-and-demand curve is alive and well and just as relevant today as ever.

A good example: gasoline prices. Shortage of production capacity combined with more use by developing nations (China and India) equals not enough supply for the increased demand. So prices go up. Unless there is collusion among oil companies, this will happen 100% of the time. It also works in speculative markets where consumers suspect that there may soon be a shortage. When supply was abundant in the '90s through overpumping from oil-producing nations (and we had enough refineries), prices dropped.

> Economics was not "invented". It is a science just like mathematematics or biology.

Science was invented too (mostly by Bacon), as well as logic (mostly by Aristotle), mathematics, and everything else.


> A good example: gasoline prices.

Gasoline is not comparable to ideas&innovations. Ideas are very similar goods as human resources. None of them likes to be treated like commodities.

One of these days "basic economics" is going to rear its ugly head and bite you when you least expect it, right in those specific areas. Unless you have three years worth of salary or investments tucked away, you'll be in for a rough ride with that kind of thinking. All the items you mention are available cheap for the asking; even cheaper by the dozen. You've been fortunate so far but its going to suck big time when you end up on the wrong end of that type of thinking. BTW just how old are you. You display a lot of naivete and inexperience for whatever age you are but maybe I'm wrong. I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken. :^O

Dawg ]:)

... I don't produce the items in question anymore. My phylosophy concerning creativity, ideas, and innovation is: "if you can't sell it, sit on it".