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Comment by illumen | Hacker News Reader

Is the tech recession over? In AU, and UK... Yes. According to various job places, there has been an increase in jobs. A low point was of course September, and October... but things have increased since then. Even newspaper classifies for jobs are on the up. Also the number of client requests for new projects has gone up for software developers/designers/advertisers/marketers I know.

I don't really track USA places - so I can't comment on them.

Is this Joel on Software post another thinly veiled advertisement for their services? Yes.

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> Is this Joel on Software post another thinly veiled advertisement for their services? Yes.

It was also informative, at least to me. When JoS stops being informative and/or entertaining, I'll stop reading it. There's no sign of that happening, though.

It's not fully over I don't think. I'm graduating from college in a few months and most of my peers have had a lot of trouble finding jobs. It's gotten so bad that even now employer recruiting sessions (the few that still come to campus) are packed to the brim with desperate job-seekers.

So while the catastrophic part is over, we're still not quite up to normal yet.

On the flip side, a lot of my peers are also still holding out for highly-paid positions at financial firms and consultancies (these are engineering majors). Both are suffering worse than the rest of 'em...

Hang in there. Graduate recruiting is cyclical and has lag, which are combining right now to make for tough conditions for milk-round applicants. If you dont get what you want now then start targeting the off cycle recruiting processes as as soon as you hear of their markets picking up. Once these companies see conditions improving they will be scrambling to hire all the people that they were no-so-long-ago scared to hire...

(Companies doing milkround recruiting (i.e. large companies, including consultancies and banks) typically set their targets for # of hires in advance of milkround cycle starting. (In my experience, this would mean setting numbers in September for the cycle that is 'on campus' in Dec-Feb). So it's no wonder they are down - they set numbers when everyone was very scared.)

Here in the US I think the blue chip tech firms have to fight for their lives. Infrastructure (Cisco, Intel) and the best positioned for supporting open source (Canonical, Fog Creek), I feel, will survive. I think data supports this.

Companies that support smaller tech operations (and hackers have always known are more efficient) should continue to grow. The recession may never happen for some.

I think the examined time frame needs to be wider. I've always noticed an upswing in hiring after the November/December holidays.

In AU I'm seeing less jobs advertised on Seek than late last year.

http://business.theage.com.au/business/surprise-jobs-jump-20... "Employers took on an additional 33,700 full-time employees in January, the most in six months, spurring hopes the economy may yet avoid a recession.

All up, the economy added 1200 jobs last month as firms cut part-time jobs. Even so, the result was much better than the overall 18,000 job losses economists had tipped."

In AU at least two major banks (CommBank and NAB - w/ SAP and Oracle respectively) are undertaking major core system replacements - this is driving up the local tech markets.

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