Become A Survey Participant

Janco Associates, Inc. has published a bi-annual information technology compensation survey for over ten years.

Participate by providing us valid data and we will be able to download a complimentary copy of the summary results1 upon its completion. In addition, you may be eligible to purchase the full study at a significant discount.

These results will be available in January. To participate, simply click the Participate button below and complete the on-line Compensation Participation Survey.

You can either download our participation excel spread sheet1 or click on the link below to enter you data via an on-line survey. (Note: will be able to come back to modify the data you enter for 120 days)

Please be assured that any compensation information provided to us will be held in the strictest confidence.

You can qualify for a complete free copy of the PDF version of the study, if your enterprise provides at least ten valid data points as determined by Janco. All other participants will qualify for the summary of the study only.

Employment News

India's outsourcers move jobs to the US!!

Wipro, India's third largest outsourcer, is expanding its development center in Atlanta from 350 to 1,000 staff, reflecting a growing trend for Indian outsourcers to expand and hire locally in the U.S. market. The company said that 80% of its current 350 employees were hired locally, and includes recent graduates from reputable academic institutions in Atlanta, experienced professionals and retired army personnel.

India's largest outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said earlier that it was expanding its business alliance with The Dow Chemical Company, including setting up a services facility near the site of Dow's global headquarters in Midland, Mich. TCS also announced that it was expanding a software services delivery center in the Cincinnati suburb of Milford, Ohio.

Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of outsourcer Infosys Technologies also said this month that it would acquire McCamish Systems, a BPO company in Atlanta focused on the insurance and financial services market.

Indian outsourcing companies are expanding both in India, and in the U.S., their key market, in anticipation of a pick up in business. Employing staff in the U.S. is expected to go over well with the local community and politicians because of resentment in the U.S. about companies moving jobs to India and other countries, analysts said.
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Employ America Act would limit H-1B Visas

The proposed Employ America Act has H-1B hiring restrictions that would bar any firm that lays off 50 or more workers from hiring guest workers. This legislation could potentially affect a broad swath of tech firms that have laid-off large numbers of workers but continue hiring.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics high-tech industry overall has laid off more than 345,000 workers (see job descriptions) since August 2008, according to the two senators in the unveiling of what they called the Employ America Act.

The proposers of this legislation said that with the unemployment rate over 10%, companies that undertake mass layoffs shouldn't need to hire foreign guest workers when there are plenty of qualified Americans looking for jobs.

In February, these same legislators moved to prohibit any financial services firm that received money from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) from hiring H-1B holders. That blanket restriction on hiring wasn't adopted, but Congress did agree to automatically make any firm receiving TARP funds "H-1B dependent."

A company is considered H-1B dependent if more than 15% of their workers are on the H-1B visa, but the TARP restriction applies regardless of the percent of visa holders on the payroll. Companies that are H-1B dependent must, among the things, make good faith efforts to hire U.S. workers first.

With the Senate expected to receive an immigration overhaul bill early next year, the prospects for any H-1B-related legislation is uncertain and probably unlikely to pass.

Proposed earlier the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2009 would set a number of restrictions on H-1B use, including the so-called 50-50 provision that would prohibit any firm with more than 50 workers from having more than half workforce on H-1B or L-1 visas. That provision is aimed at Indian outsourcing firms. The legislation also sets higher salary standards for visa workers as well as anti-fraud provisions.

Other proposed legislation that would to increase the H-1B cap and that would exempt foreign graduates of U.S. Ph.D. programs from counting toward a cap on H-1B visas.
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IT loses over 300,000 jobs in 2009 according to Hackett

Large, global companies have eliminated 300,000 IT jobs in 2009, according to the consultancy Hackett Group. Back-office jobs in general fell 630,000 -- three times the average annual job loss from 2000 to 2007. The firm doesn't expect 2010 to see a turnaround for such positions, and instead forecasts an "extended jobless recovery." At the same time IT Salaries have fallen and Janco Associates, Inc, forecasts that this trend will continue.

Reasons include the general economic downturn, outsourcing, lack of economic growth, deep cuts in response to budget pressures, and improvements in productivity and automation.

The research estimates that nearly 2 million IT jobs in North America and Europe will have been eliminated between 2000 and 2014. That makes IT the largest back-office segment to lose jobs. The figures are based on a survey of 4,000 global companies, all with more than $1 billion in revenue. Back-office jobs include IT, administration, HR, finance, and procurement.

The following factors are critical considerations for CIO as they look to advance the use of Infornation Technology.

Inefficiency kills competitiveness: In order to maintain profitability and cash flow in times of weaker demand and margin pressure, it is imperative to understand and target inefficiencies throughout the organization. Some combination of both rapid and strategic cost reduction initiatives is critical to short-term results as long-term competitiveness.
Cash is king: freeing up unnecessary working capital is the cheapest form of financing. During periods of economic growth the focus on the balance sheet wanes, leading to increased inventories, receivables and inefficient management of sourcing relationships and payables.
Accurate and timely information is critical: Having timely and correct information is critical during volatile economic times. Ensuring that information allows you to understand how demand is changing and impacting your business is critical in planning and forecasting, which in turn are critical to decision-making.
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Monster.com parent reports higher earnings based on job cuts

(Reported in Reuters) - Monster Worldwide Inc's excellent quarterly results were due to cost-cutting, including reducing its work force without resorting to layoffs.

Stripping out an income tax benefit, the parent of the jobs website Monster.com earned a penny per share in the third quarter, beating analysts' expectations for break-even results. But revenue fell short of expectations.

"We were able to squeeze a few extra dollars out in terms of cost containment, and that gave us the extra penny," the CEO said. "We've been watching headcount and marketing costs very closely."

Monster reduced headcount by about 200 during the quarter by not replacing people who left in customer service, human resources and other areas. The job reduction also partly reflects moving a technology facility from Maynard, Massachusetts, to nearby Cambridge. The company has about 6,950 employees.

The cost efforts come amid a jobs climate where the mood is more positive, but companies are not yet willing to step up hiring or the recruitment advertising that goes with it. "The (U.S.) recruitment market is bouncing along the bottom, somewhat flat," CEO said. "Europe is about the same. We don't see any major upswing." Demand in India and China has stabilized, while some small markets like South Korea are in full recovery.
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Adobe lay offs over 1,300 in FY 2009

Adobe Systems to lay off 680 staff, or 9% of its workforce. The job cuts will be made worldwide and are designed to bring Adobe's costs in line with its 2010 budget and "the realities of the business environment according to the company.

Adobe also reduced the workforce at Omniture, which it has just acquired, by 9% at the close of that acquisition. Salaries will remain flat through 2010.

Adobe announced a previous round of layoffs last December, when it said it would cut 600 jobs worldwide to reduce costs. It said the recession had been causing slow sales of its Creative Suite 4 software, which it launched last October.

Business for the software company has continued to lag this year, even as its stock price rose along with the broader market. In September Adobe posted third-quarter profits of $136 million, down from $191.6 million in the third quarter of 2008. Revenue also fell, to $697.5 million from $887.3 million a year earlier.

This latest restructuring will result in pretax charges of $65 million to $71 million, including about $50 million for severance payments and $18 million to consolidate leased facilities, according to Adobe.
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What is the cause of a system failure - staff, infrastructure, hadrware, or software?

When there is a problem it is often said that "we are looking for the solution/problem but not looking to place blame." While some managers see this as productive, it is not unproductive.

It is possible that the root cause of an incident is an individual who did not do his job properly. It is also entirely possible (and not uncommon) that the same individual habitually does not do his/her job properly. What is the cause of the problem - infrastructure?

When that is the case, a manager has just as much responsibility to fix the problem as when the root cause is a hardware device that is generating intermittent errors. With the nonperforming employee, though, the manager needs to dig deeper to find out why the employee is not performing properly. This is the difference between designating the employee as the cause and assigning blame: The employee might have never received the necessary training, might be going through a painful divorce or have a very sick child and is distracted, might be suffering from depression, might have tried to fix the problem and had the manager refuse to spend what was needed to fix it.
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2,500 more jobs cut by Sprint

After losing more than 540,000 customers in the third quarter, Sprint Nextel will lay off as many as 2,500 employees and contractors. Sprint expects to cut labor costs by $350 million a year through the action. In the short term, the cuts will cost $60 million to $80 million in the fourth quarter, related to severance and other costs associated with the layoffs, Sprint said. Salaries will remain flat for at least the next 18 months at Sprint.

Sprint said it would be careful to make sure that the employee cuts will not impact its improved customer service record. Sprint has improved service so much that it has discontinued using 27 call centers as a result of decreased call volumes.
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Freefall in Job Market -- Is It Over Yet?

Since last November, IT employment has declined by nearly 250,000 jobs, or 6 percent, after peaking that month at 4.058 million jobs. However, only 1,100 jobs were lost in August, or a .03 percent decline, according to the TechServe Alliance, an Alexandria, Va.-based industry group that conducts an ongoing analysis of IT occupation data compiled by U.S.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday that the U.S. economy grew by a 3.5 percent annual rate in the last quarter.

But IT employment is in a trough and so is the pay, according to Janco Associates a Park City UT based research group that studies IT compensation. (see IT Salary Survey). Janco said in July that said "... in 2009 compensation for IT professionals has been cut by the largest amount in nearly two decades. For example, the government index of real average weekly earnings down 1.9 percent since its high point last December. And the average workweek - now down to 33 hours - is the shortest on modern record."

Jobs board Dice.com reported 53,400 jobs posted Thursday, compared with 75,600 in November. Janco not predicting a fast recovery. In addition, IT jobs continue to move overseas. Janco predicts that recovery will not happen in IT until eary in 2011.
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Stimulus Packages Misses Tech Industry

Tech Industry Threatens 120,000 Job Loss if R&D Tax Credit Not Extended

Tax reform organizations have called the R&D tax credit corporate welfare, and want Congress to let the credit lapse and expire. IT salaries would fall dramatically if that were to happen. It is estimated that over 120,000 jobs would be lost it the R&D tax credit is not extended.

Since 1981 when the credit first began, it has consistently been extended at a cost to the United States of about $7 billion a year. The tax credit varies between 14 to 20 percent of R&D spending.

In a sensitive political environment with unemployment hovering over 10 percent in many parts of the country, changes to health care, and regulatory reform of the financial and banking systems, the idea of more job loss is something most politicians want to avoid.

Industry wants the tax credit increased to the 20 percent of spending on R&D costs. Hard to know where Congress is going to go with this one, but combine the threat of more job loss and the argument that companies will move R&D overseas to countries that extend competitive credit, and it is not difficult to imagine the Obama administration and Congress extending the credit.

"We're talking about 120,000 jobs -- if anything, this is citizen welfare ... or employee welfare," said the senior director of policy for TechAmerica. "These are not 120,000 sweep-the-floor jobs. These are highly compensated, well-educated U.S. employees."

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Could Pay Czar Impact IT Salaries

The Washington pay czar who's ordered steep pay cuts for executives at bailed-out firms could have practically unlimited power to regulate compensation at any company that gets federal funding, lawyers say -- even if his legal authority is sketchy.

The move raises questions about whether the mandate will be limited to the seven firms the pay czar is currently targeting -- and whether it could trickle down to smaller companies.

Under authority granted by Congress through legislation passed in February, the pay czar has decided to order cuts for the top 25 earners at the firms that received the most aid from the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package. He's looking to cut salaries by 90 percent from last year's levels, and to cut total pay by half.

The fact that Washington is again meddling with contracts -- following a stalled attempt by Congress in March to halt AIG bonuses -- has revived charges that the federal government is overstepping its bounds. Lawyers say Feinberg could be trampling on legally binding agreements.

Since these companies owe money to the federal government, that gives the Obama administration political leverage -- to exercise its ownership stake, or to embarrass the executives in the press, or to target the companies in any number of other ways.

The move by the Obama administration is for now limited to the seven top bailed-out companies and will not touch firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, which repaid the government.

But President Obama announced plans to increase lending to small businesses and to give them greater access to the rescue fund, leaving some to question whether the pay czar might have authority to dictate executive pay at those firms as well.
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