So what can we draw from this debate? Is there a shortage? If so, according to whom? In our findings, we have come to believe there is in fact an IT labor shortage, but it is not the type that is commonly thought. There is not a shortage of workers in these fields, there is only a shortage of the type of worker that the average software company wants to hired, i.e. cheap and willing to work long hours.
Even this shortage is debatable. Consider the report that first started the issue of the programmer shortage. The Department of Commerce report states that according to BLS projections, there will be an average annual demand for 95,000 new IT workers through 2005; and that only 24,553 U.S. students earned bachelor's degrees in computer and information sciences in 1994. These were the original numbers that started talk of a shortage. However, the report did not consider other sources of workers, such as college graduates with degrees in other areas. Only about 25 percent of the IT work force in 1993 had degrees in computer and information science. So, if the 24,553 students graduating with computer and information science degrees are that 25 percent, then the total IT work force should be around 98,212 people, a little more than 3,000 over the average annual demand, a possible surplus.
As for the hundreds of thousands of IT jobs currently unfilled, it seems that if companies adjusted their hiring practices and employed one of the solutions such as retraining of employees, these positions could be filled. The abnormally high unemployment of older programmers shows that the workforce is there, if the companies were willing to hire them.
So there is no real labor shortage, just a shortage of what the companies want and have come to expect: cheap labor that will work long hours. This labor could come from graduating college students or from overseas, either case leading to the loss of older Americans' jobs. This therefore is not a problem for the government to become involved in, it is a phenomenon which the market itself will correct as the industry becomes more stable, and companies have incentive to create lasting relationships with employees, which will require training and improved employee management.