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Software services in the U.S. helped temper the overall sequential decline in technology jobs during the fourth quarter, allowing the industry to minimize jobs losses compared to the private sector, according to a TechAmerica report released late Monday.

Tech jobs, overall, dipped 0.6 percent, or by 38,000 positions, sequentially in the fourth quarter, while U.S. private sector jobs declined 1.3 percent during the same period, according to TechAmerica, a technology advocacy trade group.

"The tech sector weathered the storm longer and stronger than other parts of the economy," Phil Bond, TechAmerica president, said … Read more

Tech job postings fell 40.4 percent in March over year ago figures, with most of the decline coming from full-time positions, according to a report released Tuesday by tech career site Dice.com.

Dice, which collects its figures at the start of each month, noted tech job postings fell to 54,301 in March, down from 91,080 a year earlier. The decline in job postings comes at a time when the nation's unemployment rate has worsened, reaching 8.1 percent in February.

According to the Dice report, full-time job postings dropped 44.2 percent to 35,570 … Read more

This was originally posted on ZDNet's Between the Lines.

As expected, the Department of Labor's February jobs report Friday was a train wreck. The economy lost 651,000 jobs in February, the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.1 percent, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised December and January job counts sharply. But the information technology industry's job picture looks decidedly better in some areas.

It's hard to find a few bright spots when 651,000, 681,000, and 655,000 jobs were lost in February, January, and December, respectively. However, the data indicates that … Read more

Kimberley Swann thought her job was boring. So she said so on her Facebook page.

Her employer, Ivell Marketing and Logistics of Clacton, U.K., gave her this update: "Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect."

Miss Swann, 16, was stunned. She told the Daily Telegraph: "I did not even put the company's name, I just put that my job was boring. … Read more

Green-tech jobs are providing a bloom to Silicon Valley's otherwise barren employment outlook, according to a recently released economic report.

In the high-tech mecca, Silicon Valley jobs dipped 1.3 percent year over year in December. Per capita income fell 0.8 percent last year over the previous period--the first time it had fallen since 2003, according to a report by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. The two organizations will jointly host the State of the Valley Conference on Friday in San Jose, Calif.

Such results in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan statistical … Read more

Silicon Valley was late to the recession "party," but the global financial crisis is causing companies to tighten their belts, leaving a stretch of Highway 101 relatively traffic-free and out-of-work entrepreneurs with some difficult choices.

A new report from the Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, as The New York Times details, indicates a 1.3 percent drop in Silicon Valley employment. That may not sound like much, but if you've driven in Silicon Valley lately in rush-hour traffic, you can see a real difference.

Not everyone, however, is being hit equally:

The … Read more

TechCrunch has compiled a list of ex-Googlers' complaints (and sometimes praise) against the company. Considering the source, it's perhaps not surprising that not every (ex) Google employee loves her alma mater, but the criticism does suggest that working at Google is not necessarily like working for the Magic Kingdom.

On the hiring process:

Google actually celebrates its hiring process, as if its ruthless inefficiency and interminable duration were a sure proof of thoroughness, a badge of honor. Perhaps it is thorough. But I would be willing to wager that Microsoft's hiring process, which takes a fraction of the … Read more

Microsoft is expected to announce layoffs soon. Google is laying off 100 of its recruiters as it slows hiring. (In case you're looking for a date, apparently Google's recruiting team is, ahem, well-favored in the aesthetics department.) Even Apple, as CNET's headline reads, is planning for life "without Jobs."

OK, so the "Jobs" in question is Steve Jobs, and he's scheduled to return to his day job in six months, but you get the picture.

The downturn is hitting open source, too. Despite earlier prognostications to the contrary, I'm hearing news … Read more

TechNewsWorld suggests that the technology industry may be relatively insulated from job losses in the recession. Yes, technology has its share of job cuts, and any cut is painful if you're on the receiving end, but there are bright spots in the economy.

Open source is one of them.

While the article points to a few different areas of technology that should comparatively thrive in a downturn, as I note in the article, open source is particularly well-suited to a troubled economy:

In a recession, headcount looks like a cost center, but open source can turn employees into profit … Read more