The outlook for tech careers changes very often and it can be hard to understand the health of the tech labor economy.
Growing up in the late 90s, I was told it was silly to aspire to work in tech. The Dot-com bubble had just burst and unemployment for IT and computer professionals skyrocketed. Profits were sliced as investments were withdrawn and a looming fear undertook the tech industry. Would the markets ever recover?
10 years later in the early 2000s, IT and programming become the hottest skills. “Forget going to school to become a doctor or dentist, you can build video games in your underwear and earn the same salary!”
Fast forward another 10 years and coding boot camps are popping up to increase the supply of computer professionals, the industry is on fire. “Within 3 months you can earn $100k salaries and have ping pong tables at work!”
Read the news today… and you’ll be surprised to hear the same Fear Uncertainty and Doubt that permeated the late 90s. Fears of venture capital withdrawals, Uncertainty of the tech economy, and Doubt over the tech labor market.
To find the truth behind this, I took a look at tech market labor statistics from the US BLS. With data you can expose F.U.D. for what it really is.
