Building a Workforce for the Information Economy (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Understanding the IT Workforce
Understanding the IT Workforce
Pages 44-91
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From page 44... ...
In addition to "computer occupations" described by the (mostly software) job categories of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (i.e., computer programmers, computer scientists, and systems analysts)
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From page 45... ...
The business manager of an office may use spreadsheets in an extremely sophisticated manner, and the intellectual skills used may be those that characterize highly skilled programmers, but the primary purpose of his or her use of spreadsheets is to manage budgets in support of an office. By contrast, a Web page designer is included, even though his or her work relies in a similar way upon the use of Web authoring tools, because the primary purpose of the job is the management of IT-enabled electronic content.
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From page 47... ...
Indeed, IT work in the IT sector and in IT-intensive firms is much more varied for a given job title than in some other sectors such as construction or manufacturing. Thus, a definition based solely on job titles may not fully capture all IT workers of interest to the committee.
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From page 48... ...
Category 1 work relies heavily on conceptual ability and theoretical knowledge, and also involves high creativity, selfdiscipline, and logical thinking, and often the ability to translate business and organizational needs to hardware and software systems specifications. Some job titles associated with primarily Category 1 work include computer scientist, entrepreneur, product designer, research engineer, systems analyst, computer science researcher, requirements analyst, system architect, system designer, programmer, software engineer, tester, computer engineer, microprocessor designer, and chip designer.
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From page 49... ...
Some job titles associated with primarily Category 2 work include system consultant, documentation writer, customer support specialist, help desk specialist, hardware maintenance specialist, network installer, and network administrator.2 Category 2 work often demands well-developed problem-solving and troubleshooting capabilities. Individuals doing Category 2 work are the first (and often the only)
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From page 50... ...
Both Category 1 and Category 2 work are themselves highly differentiated. In Category 1, for example, development of software tools (e.g., programming language environments)
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From page 51... ...
2.2.4 Category 1 and Category 2 Workers Any given IT worker is likely to do work that involves a mix of Category 1 and Category 2 work. A good example is individuals who can be characterized as modifiers or extenders (e.g., maintenance programmers, programmers, software engineers, computer engineers, database administrators)
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From page 53... ...
A similar situation might pertain to programming and software engineering. Category 2 work in this area would typically involve the routine job of writing code to specifications developed by designers, or modifying existing code to fix bugs in the software.
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From page 54... ...
Systems integration, systems analysis, and network design, for instance, require persons who can visualize outcomes, anticipate problems, and manage projects, budgets, and people. Historically, different kinds of formal education have been needed for different kinds of Category 1 work.
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From page 55... ...
Some Category 2 jobs are available to graduates from high school technical programs, but more commonly technically oriented high school graduates pursue additional education at a community or technical college. These variations in the amount of formal education that is typically required for certain types of IT jobs affect the speed at which new supplies of IT workers can be provided.
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From page 56... ...
Within both the "enduring" and "perishable" categories are skills that are "hard," or technological, and skills that are "soft," or more general. 2.3.3 The Role of Experience and Situated Learning and Knowledge Formal education alone does not make a productive worker.
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From page 57... ...
Knowledge of a particular company or industry in the collective memory and work practices of a local "community of practice." Cognitive scientists have found that expertise in many fields (including mathematics and computer programming) is "conditional" it is based on the ability to quickly apply content knowledge in response to a situation or problem.9 In this view, skills are an integral part of a social system (either at work, in school, or elsewhere)
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From page 58... ...
Boehm (Box 2.3) has estimated the impact of experience on the productivity of software developers engaged in developing large software systems.l3 He finds that about a year of experience in a programming language and with a particular system environment (what Boehm calls a "virtual machine," consisting of the complex of hardware and software that supports the task being programmed)
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From page 59... ...
Furthermore, the range of productivity variation as a function of applications experience is much wider than for either systems experience or language experience.
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From page 60... ...
This is because the brilliant individual's ability to interact successfully with others, to build on and to draw on the commonly shared tacit or informal knowledge of his or her particular work team, will greatly influence the success of the group. Finally, the situated view of experience explains the importance of contextualizing IT work for specific applications.
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From page 61... ...
Nevertheless, it is the judgment of the committee that the size of the Category 1 workforce is very likely now, or soon will be, in the range of 2.5 million or more. This figure includes those who categorize themselves as computer systems analysts and scientists, computer programmers, computer science teachers, and electrical and electronic engineers.l4 It is also the judgment of committee that the Category 2 workforce is at least equal in size to the Category 1 workforce, and may well be larger.
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From page 62... ...
This provides one important indicator of a dynamic IT labor market with strong demand for workers. · Annual employment growth in the collection of workers in several occupational groups computer systems analysts and scientists, computer programmers, computer science teachers, and electrical and electronic engineers was larger than growth in the labor force as a whole during the l990s, according to the CPS.
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From page 63... ...
The average annual growth rate for these occupations excluding electrical and electronic engineers and computer science teachers was 8.8 percent for this period. These rates are substantially higher than the average annual employment growth of 1.9 percent in the U.S.
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From page 64... ...
· Since CPS data are rather coarse, it is highly likely that within the large categories of computer systems analysts and scientists, computer programmers, computer science teachers, and electrical and electronic engineers are jobs that require new kinds of skills that have had much higher growth rates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that recent growth rates within these subcategories may be in excess of 20 percent per year, and SESTAT data show that employment of computer engineers working on software grew annually at a rate of approximately 15 percent from 1993 to 1997, whereas employment of electrical engineers and computer engineers working on hardware was relatively flat during that period.
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From page 65... ...
Tool and Process Control Computer Programmer Aides Computer Programmers Computer Support Specialists Database Administrators Systems Analysts, Electronic Data Processing Computer Engineers 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Percent Change FIGURE 2.4 Change in employment, Category 1 computer occupations, 19971998. In this figure, "all computer occupations" includes computer engineers.
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From page 66... ...
CPS data indicate that about 77 percent of Category 1 IT employees were male in 1995 and 1999, compared to 53 percent of all employed individuals and 46 percent of those employed in professional specialty occupations.l7 Similarly SESTAT data indicate that the IT workforce was 71 percent male in 1993 and even increased to 75 percent in 1997. · The Category 1 IT workforce is relatively young, but aging.
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From page 67... ...
This proportion of foreign-born workers in the IT workforce is not unusual for technical fields. In addition, foreignborn IT workers who are permanent and temporary residents have higher levels of formal education than do native-born IT workers.l8 And foreignborn IT workers tend to be more concentrated in a relatively small number of states that have large immigrant populations, which in turn may lead to networks of immigrants developing to promote and support immigrant enterprises.
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From page 68... ...
third of all employed individuals and three-quarters of all employed in professional specialty occupations in the United States. More discussion on this point is contained in Section 2.4.5.
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From page 69... ...
For example, data from private sources tend to indicate higher rates of annual salary growth for IT workers especially those in certain occupations than do government data.20 Government data sets such as the 20These occupations were not limited exclusively to Category 1 occupations; they included CIO/vice president, IS director, manager (systems analysis and programming) , manager (systems programming/tech support)
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From page 70... ...
According to the OES and as shown in Figure 2.6, mean annual salaries in constant 1999 dollars for computer occupations (even excluding computer engineers, whose salaries grew still faster) increased by more than 5 percent from 1997 to 1998, faster than the growth in mean salaries for other science and technology occupations.
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From page 71... ...
Sciences Managers 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Percent Increase FIGURE 2.6 Increase in mean annual salary, science and technology occupations, 1997-1998 (constant dollars)
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From page 72... ...
Bethlehem, Pa.: NACE. new bachelor's degree recipients indicate that while beginning salaries for new degree holders in computer science, computer engineering, and information science/computer programming have been more robust than for new bachelor's degree holders in other professional fields, they follow an overall pattern similar to that for other fields: flat or down in the early 1990s, turning upward in 1995 with peak annual increases around 1998, followed by a lower, but still positive, increase in 1999.
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From page 73... ...
All Other Computer Scientists Programmers, Numerical Tool Computer Programmer Aides Computer Programmers Computer Support Specialists Database Administrators Systems Analysts Computer Engineers 1 1 Percent Increase FIGURE 2.9 Increase in mean annual salary, science and technology occupations, 1997-1998 (constant dollars)
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From page 74... ...
This rate of change could perhaps be explained by the large ongoing salary increases for individuals with specific skills. Indeed, the DataMasters survey shows that IT workers who specialize in Web design are currently experiencing not only rapid salary growth but also, as shown in Figure 2.13, accelerating annual salary increases that buck the trend of lower annual increases across other IT occupations.
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From page 75... ...
. SOURCE: Information Week, 1999 National IT Salary Survey.
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From page 76... ...
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, March 1996-March 1999, special tabulation.
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Available online at |
From page 78... ...
140 120 100 80 60 40 20 o $ of ~b Oco~° Cop I'll cabs FIGURE 2.16 Mean annual salary of computer engineers in high-technology metropolitan areas as a percentage of the mean annual salary of computer engineers nationally.
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From page 79... ...
These individuals were employed in a variety of occupations, but most, about 75 percent, were not working in science and engineering 24These figures are based on BLS data for IT workers in four "core" occupations in 1998: computer scientists, computer engineers, systems analysts, and programmers. See tabulations by Ellis, Richard, and B
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From page 80... ...
The number of individuals with a formal education in IT-related fields has grown in the past few years, but it is difficult to estimate what will occur in the future. While enrollment at the undergraduate level is difficult to estimate, the Taulbee survey, which collects data on computer science and computer engineering programs at Ph.D.-granting institutions, shows that the number of undergraduates entering full-time study in those institutions doubled over the 5-year period from 1995 to 1999, rising sharply in 1996 and 1997 and then leveling off in 1998 and 1999 (Table 2.4~.
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From page 81... ...
According to the Taulbee data, the actual number of master's degrees awarded was constant at about 4,400 to 1997 27The Taulbee surveys are taken from various issues of Computing Research News, published by the Computing Research Association (available online at |
From page 82... ...
It is possible, then, that at the start of the 21st century, the number of trained computer scientists added to the workforce yearly may stand at 36,000 with bachelor's degrees, 12,500 with master's degrees, and 1,100 with doctorates.
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From page 83... ...
By contrast, about 36.6 percent of Category 1 IT workers working in companies that produce information technology or provide computer services are employed in large companies, and 26.9 percent are employed in small companies. As indicated in Table 2.6, in 1997 well over one-half of Category 1 IT workers (63.8 percent)
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From page 84... ...
This lower rate for CS&E degree holders may imply that there is a smaller proportion of the unemployed computer science and computer engineering graduates who have given up looking for work and hence, a greater demand for such graduates than for others. Because BLS-measured "unemployment rates" count only unemployed individuals who are seeking work, they set a floor on the number of individuals who would be available to take IT work.
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From page 85... ...
These clusters include occupations in database development and administration, digital media, enterprise systems analysis and integration, network design and administration, programming and software engineering, technical support, technical writing, and Web development and administration (Table 2.7~. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to try to map the list of NWCET occupations onto the occupational categories covered in the large, government data sets, such as the CPS, that provide demographic information about the U.S.
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From page 86... ...
The median age of electrical and electronic technicians was 35 and that of data-processing equipment repairers was 31.
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From page 87... ...
· For each of the above four occupational groups, the large majority of individuals are also white, but the percentage varies widely by group. In 1999, 96 percent of technical writers, 82 percent of data processing
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From page 88... ...
. engmeerlng Technical support Technical writing Web development and administration Data analyst, database administrator Animator, 2D/3D artist, media specialist Systems analyst, systems integrator Network technician network engineer Applications analyst, programmer/analyst, software engineer, software QA specialist Analyst, help desk technician, PC support specialist Technical writer, document specialist Web page developer, Web site developer Analyze and design database Produce visual and functional design Define customer requirements Perform monitoring and management Implement program Perform troubleshooting Design document Perform content and technical analysis Perform: and anal requirem Determir types ant delivery Identify; documen customer requirem Monitor report co security, connective problems Write cot Analyze and reset solutions Select sty tone Research
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From page 89... ...
UNDERSTANDING THE IT WORKFORCE ndards 89 Sample Sample Sample Sample Performance Technical Skills for Key Activity Indicator Knowledge Employability Perform research and analyze requirements Determine media types and delivery platform Identify and document customer requirements Monitor and report component, security, and connectivity problems Write code toting Analyze problem and research solutions Select style and tone Research content Business objectives and goals for project are well defined Chosen media elements and delivery platform support project goals and scope Constraints are properly identified System is closely monitored and outages are reported in a timely manner Code is developed using efficient software design processes Problem is correctly identified Style and tone are appropriate for purpose, medium, and audience Content is properly indexed and weighted by importance Knowledge of basic business objectives and requirements analysis Knowledge of media types and capabilities Knowledge of continuous quality improvement tools Knowledge of network Knowledge of programming language required for application Knowledge of troubleshooting methods different writing styles Knowledge of indexing and weighting techniques Ability to identify key sources of information Ability to present technical information Ability to compare multiple viewpoints and analyze communication Ability to interpret and evaluate data Ability to write simple documents Ability to analyze and prioritize information Ability to present information persuasively and objectively Ability to interpret communication and compare multiple .
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From page 90... ...
in the Category 2 occupations of technical writers, electrical and electronic technicians, and computer operators grew annually by amounts ranging from about 4 percent to 17 percent between 1996 and 1999, while wages for data-processing equipment repairers declined by almost 2 percent (see Table 2.8~. 2.5 RECAP "Information technology" is a broad term encompassing computer and communications technology.
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From page 91... ...
. Real wages have grown in Category 1 occupations overall at a rate of about 3.8 to 4.5 percent annually since 1996, although this figure masks much more substantial growth in certain subspecialties and also does not include the impact of stock options and equity stakes on total compensation.
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