IT Workforce Data Project

The IT Workforce Data Project, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, identified trustworthy statistics on information technology workers in the United States. The most recent project report, The Outlook in 2003 for Information Technology Workers in the USA, by Richard Ellis and B. Lindsay Lowell, was released during a Congressional "Breakfast Bytes" briefing on Capitol Hill on September 17, 2003. This report provides original and updated information regarding the effects of the recession, as well as trends in immigration, higher education and outsourcing.

The IT Workforce Data Project series identified and disseminated trustworthy statistics on information technology workers in the United States. Among the information released:

• Recession Effects: Employment has been declining since reaching peak levels in 2000; levels of joblessness shot up from 1.9 percent in 1999, to 3.6 percent in 2001, 4.3 percent in 2002, and an average of 5.9 percent for the first two quarters in 2003.

• Immigration Trends: During the past decade, the share of foreign-born persons in the IT workforce has doubled and use of L-1 visas for foreign employees of multinational businesses has tripled.

• Higher Education: The number of new bachelor's students in computer science jumped 40% in 1995-96, after a 5% increase the previous year, leading to record numbers of new degrees in IT disciplines through 2001-2002 academic year, according to the Computing Research Association.

• Outsourcing: Outsourcing of IT work to foreign locations has quadrupled. Outsourced transactions in technical work have grown from $300 million in 1995 to over $1.2 billion in 2001.

View report highlights or download a copy of the full report and the original four reports here.

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