Adam Back <adam@cypherspace.org> writes:
Are there any more definitive security industry stats? Are applied crypto people suffering higher rates of unemployment than general application programmers? (From my statistically too small sample of acquaintances it might appear so.)
Hard to say. I've seen very high rates of unemployment among people of all walks of life in New York of late -- I know a lot of lawyers, systems administrators, secretaries, advertising types, etc. who are out of work or have been underemployed for a year or longer. I'm not sure that it is just cryptographers. Always keep in mind when you hear the latest economic statistics that measuring the size of the US economy, or the number of unemployed people, is partially voodoo. When was the last time you saw any estimate of the margin of error on the supposedly "scientific" measurement of quarterly economic growth? How many illegal immigrants are being polled in the employment stats? How much of the revenue of underground businesses gets counted in the GDP figures? (I myself am unemployed at the moment, but voluntarily so I suppose I wouldn't count in the statistics -- starting a company during a recession turns out to be a great way to burn yourself out out, so I decided to take some time off of working. Haven't given much thought to what I'll do to find a job when I decide I want one again...) Perry