> I remember how, in the recession of the early eighties, TV
> commentators chortled over the fact that anyone with computer skills
> had been spared layoffs...and I also recall the contempt with which
> most programmers normally treat the issue of unionizing hi tech
> workers...
> But, as it turns out, neither education nor skills offer any kind of
> protection.
Interestingly, even mainstream analysts are starting to admit this. E.g. Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/itlmi/message/73
> Q: You concluded that unemployment is rising and real wages are
> falling for so-called New Economy workers.
> A: The fourth quarter of 2002 was the slowest rate of wage growth on
> record for the group. In the first quarter of 2003, their wage
> growth was 1.8 percent over fourth-quarter 2002--that's way behind
> inflation. Not a pretty picture for these skilled white-collar
> workers.
> The bottom line for me is that in many policy discussions we argued
> that your skills will insulate you from the ups and downs of the New
> Economy; this latest downturn has proved that to be a pretty dubious
> contention.
But it's not just dot-com-ers: "inflation-adjusted wages for [all] professional and technical workers have indeed fallen," which includes (e.g.) "lawyers and accountants ... engineers, computer scientists, doctors, teachers and scientists."