Comment service vs. product development (Score 1) 163
I'd think web development is mostly so-called "in-house development" (or contract work for client-specific projects, etc), i.e., development for support or service purposes as opposed to development of saleable product. I'd be curious to see a study of service vs. product development hiring, or more generally, service sector vs. product sector hiring. If the DOL is concerned about offshoring and other such issues, I would think they would be concerned about this sort of distinction, especially since the anecdotal trend seems to be that new jobs these days are mostly service sector jobs (that require less skill, education, etc, in general) while product sector jobs have been moving to other countries (for some time now), where (often US-educated) high-end employees are significantly less costly. Of course, service sector jobs are now being offshored as well.
An adverse effect of this trend is that education in the US is being dis-incentivized, since more educated and experienced workers from the product sector are getting the message not that they need more education, but that they already have too much education for the service sector jobs they must compete for, against less educated and thus less expensive candidates.
One might think that the information technology sector is exempt from this; not so at all, and that's my point. Web development is in many respects like getting a job at McDonald's, and employers favor candidates with less education and experience, simply because they cost less to employ.
An adverse effect of this trend is that education in the US is being dis-incentivized, since more educated and experienced workers from the product sector are getting the message not that they need more education, but that they already have too much education for the service sector jobs they must compete for, against less educated and thus less expensive candidates.
One might think that the information technology sector is exempt from this; not so at all, and that's my point. Web development is in many respects like getting a job at McDonald's, and employers favor candidates with less education and experience, simply because they cost less to employ.
