So here is a dilemma: are IT jobs plummeting (maybe just the ones the Bureau of labor Statistics classifies), or are they hot, or are managers still doing plenty of hiring somewhere in between?

The Bureau of Labor Stastistics says they are plummeting. But wait...

If the categories used to report 'hot roles' or 'plummeting jobs' are not normalized into any agreed-upon set of descriptiors, how do we know whether the US Bureau of Labor Satistics really knows whether IT jobs are 'plummeting'? Conversely, if the terms it used weren't generally accepted, how would Career Builder find anyone a job? And if CIOs with scarce talent in their group that they badly want to retain and grow, wouldn't they describe their titles so they could be recognized? So here we go, for your compare and contrast enjoyment:

First up: Bureau of Labor Statistics reports drop:

This is their category list:

Computer and Information Scientists, Research ; Computer Programmers ; Computer Software Engineers, Applications ; Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software ; Computer Support Specialists ; Computer Systems Analysts ; Database Administrators ; Network and Computer Systems Administrators ; Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts ; Computer Specialists, All Other ; Actuaries ; Mathematicians ; Operations Research Analysts ; Statisticians ; Mathematical Technicians ; Mathematical Science Occupations, All Other.

Here are Career Builder classifications, with 34,060 jobs (08/25/08):

AS/400, Business Analyst, IT Consulting, Database, Desktop Support, Entry Level Technology, ERP, Executive, Internet, Legacy Systems, Tech Management, Network, IT Operations, Project Manager, Quality Assurance, Systems Design, Technical Writer, IT Training, Unix, Unix Administration, Web Development, Windows Development.

And now Forrester’s just-published 16 hot roles:

Account manager, desktop virtualization expert,mobile operations and devices expert,service manager, business process analyst, storage director, enterprise apps specialist, IT planner, network architect, enterprise project manager, data/content-oriented business analyst, business architect, enterprise architect, vendor management expert, information/data architect, information security architect.

My final thought on this mishmash -- practical people will ignore the first and third of these categories and stay with CareerBuilder's data structure. That's where the jobs really are. As for Forrester and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, map to career builder, normalize synonyms. Please.

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