Job gains and losses in IT: The latest numbers

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews

October 7, 2008, 5:27 PM

Although the telecom industry lost 3,400 jobs from August through September of this year, the computer manufacturing business lost virtually none, and "computer systems design and related services" picked up 8,500 more employees.

With more workers from a lot of fields already hitting the unemployment lines in September, how are jobs at computer companies doing? Although it's too early to tell about the future fallout from the current global economic crisis, results were decidedly mixed in September, with some types of computer businesses losing jobs and others actually gaining, say the latest numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.

Information technology and computer companies appear in at least three general industry categories: Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing, Information, and Professional and Business Services. Drilling down a bit into the agency's detailed breakout of unemployment statistics, BetaNews discovered that on the whole, heavily computer-related companies in the Information industry seemed to fare worse than those in either the manufacturing or business and professional services segment. One subcategory of the Information field -- telecommunications -- lost about 3,400 payroll jobs from August to September of this year.

Also within the Information industry, companies offering data processing, hosting, and related services dropped about 990 workers.

The bureau's Information category, though, also contains businesses outside the computer industry such as "publishing industries, except Internet," which forfeited around 1,800 jobs, and "motion picture and sound recording industries," which picked up another 1,700.

On other hand, business boomed in "computer systems design and related services" -- a component of the larger category of Professional and Business Services -- which added a hefty 8,500 more employees.

The broad category of Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing, on the other hand, was totally flat, neither losing nor gaining jobs in any significant numbers.

Within this manufacturing category, however, communications equipment fell by 200 jobs, but computer and peripheral equipment added 400 employees and semiconductors and electronic components tacked on another 700 positions, for instance.

By way of contrast, the "Financial Activities" industry lost a massive 17,000 jobs between August and September of this year. The construction and retail trade industries also underwent large losses, whereas mining and health care added jobs.

The October numbers might turn out to be a lot more gloomy.