Need to Rethink Next Year?

An article in today’s New York Times – Ashlee Vance, “Tech Industry Feels a Slump,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/technology/15tech.html?th&emc=th, suggests the need for the School to do some intense contingency planning for next academic year, especially in terms of recruiting.

Here are some excerpts:

The technology industry, which resisted the economy’s growing weakness over the last year as customers kept buying laptops and iPhones, has finally succumbed to the slowdown.

In the span of just a few weeks, orders for both business and consumer tech products have collapsed, and technology companies have begun laying off workers. The plunge is so severe that some executives are comparing it with the dot-com bust in 2000, when hundreds of companies disappeared and Silicon Valley lost nearly a fifth of its jobs.

This time around, the tech sector finds itself at the mercy of a double-barreled slump in both corporate and consumer spending caused by the housing decline and the economic crisis on Wall Street. Technology companies are also feeling the effect of frozen credit markets as business and government customers struggle to finance computer and software purchases that can run to millions of dollars.