From...

July 2, 1999
Web posted at: 11:06 a.m. EDT (1506 GMT)

by Patrick Thibodeau

WASHINGTON (IDG) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce today warned that the U.S. is facing a huge demand for new information technology workers and urged businesses to do more to train and encourage people to pursue high-tech careers.

In a study that measured the labor force against the demand for IT employees in fast-growing technology fields, the Commerce Department said the U.S. will need 1.3 million new IT workers by 2006.

To give that number some perspective, that's almost double the 1.5 million high-tech workers -- computer programmers, scientists, systems analysts and engineers -- that the government counted in 1996.

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"America's continued leadership in the global economy will depend on how quickly we can assemble an army of homegrown technology workers," said Commerce Secretary William Daley at the National Press Club today.

Instead of looking overseas for high-tech workers, Daley called on businesses to commit more resources to their training efforts, collaborate in developing joint training programs with other firms, give time off to workers for training and tap underrepresented labor pools: women, minorities and the disabled.

But Daley said there are no plans to offer businesses specific financial incentives to step up training programs.

Building a new IT workforce will also depend, in large part, on the ability of businesses and schools to convince young people in particular to seek high-tech careers. And that will mean overcoming the no-fun, plastic-pocket-protector image IT workers still have among the nation's youth, as well as improving academic standards in science and math, federal officials said.

"We've got to eliminate watered-down courses and get every student to take challenging courses," said U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley, who appeared with Daley today.

The Commerce Department study avoided taking any position on the controversy over whether there is currently a shortage of IT workers. Daley said the labor statistics don't provide good enough measurements to answer that question. Instead, the focus was entirely on the need to increase the number of people entering the field.

Of the 1.3 million new IT workers the government says will be needed over the next 6 years, 1.13 million will be needed to fill newly created jobs and approximately 240,000 will be needed to replace workers who are leaving the fields.

The Commerce Department also unveiled an advertising public information campaign, being put together with the help of Hollywood producers including Warner Brothers, to help make IT seem hip.

One advertisement shows a young woman holding up a laptop computer screen that says "IT rules."