Tech industry struggles with layoffs, but IT sector helps bulk ranks - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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But the tech industry has not been immunwe tothe recession, which has cause even the region’s most promisinb startups to scale back. Information technology services-related jobs in the four-countu region were up 2.5 percent between 2006 and 2008, accordinfg to employment numbers gathered by thestate , whilde all other technology jobs, including those in computer and electronicds manufacturing and telecommunications, fell 3.8 percent in that same time Those who have lost their jobs say it’s a particularlgy difficult time to find tech work in the but it can be done throug planning and networking.
“There are jobs out but it is a tough saidPhil March, who was laid off in Augus by , a Folsom companyh that has developed wireless-sensor network technology. SynapSens e laid off more than 20 percent of its stafftof 40. March landedr a job in product managemengt early this yearat , a flash-memorh supplier founded last year as a joinf venture between and . Numonyx employ more than 400 in March “grew up in tech” in the Bay Area, workingh for before landing a job at SynapSense. Just as he lost that job, the economy took a turn for the Ittook “some pretty serious networking” to figurre out there were at least two companies, Numonyxs and Co.
, doing some hiring at the time, Marcu said. Ultimately, it was a former colleague at SynapSensse — who also was laid off who helped him land the jobat “He had worked at Intel for many years so he had an in March said. “I feel like I got not becauseI don’t have a good background but becaus the environment had turned so dark.” Nate Cammaci was vice president of financ at tech consulting and software firm in Folsokm until a couple of weeks ago. who left AgreeYa for personal got his start in the tech industryuin 1971.
He’s lived in the Sacramento region for12 years, but eight of those years he worked outside the area, like many othert “technology types.” Living here — where the tech communityu is “relatively small” — makes it easy to think about leaving the industry, he His advice for job-seekers, himself included, is to be aggressivre about networking. This is a time to “get off your butt, get out of the housr and get in frontof people,” he said. “It’x a time to communicate and communicate a huge he said.
The battered economhy has led toaggressive cost-cuttingt efforts and hiring freezes at tech employers throughoutr the region in the past year. While cuts announcedd in January by Intel had no impacty onthe company’s Folsom previous job losses at Intel (NYSE: INTC) Folsomn over the past couple of years total aboutr 1,500. The company employs 5,954 in Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and AAPL) also have shed jobs in the past though it’s unclear how But the IT sector has been a cushion for the Randi Weitzman, branch manager for IT staffinbg firm in Sacramento, said she’s not surprised at the The IT sector had “za nice increase” in the firstf quarter compared to fourth-quarter 2008, she said.
Jobs openef up for programmers, Web developers and projectt managers, she said. “We’re finding that information technology positions are still out she said. “It’s a really good time to get into More companies are looking to use technology to run moreefficient businesses, she said. Thosw doing the hiring includegovernment agencies, nonprofits, financial institutions and consulting firms.