Office of Technology Policy ■ U.S. Department of Commerce

1

IN THIS ISSUE

New Report on the

IT Work Force

Released

Pages 1-2

Kelly Carnes

Speakes at Silicon

Valley E-Business

Conference and

Expo

Pages 1 and 3

labor market, and outlines several

steps key stakeholders could take to

address the challenge of developing a

world-class work force.

Key Findings

Key findings of the report include:

■ More than 1.3 million new workers will be required to meet the projected demand for core IT workers in

the United States between 1996 and

2006. About 1,134,000 workers will

be needed to fill newly created jobs

and approximately 240,000 will be

needed to replace workers who are

leaving these fields.

■ The projected demand will have a

significant regional impact. California,

Texas and Virginia are projected to

have the largest number of core IT

workers in 2006. These three states

also lead the country in the average

annual number of core IT job openings between 1996 and 2006.

■ The computer and data

processing services (CDPS)

industry -- including many

companies that focus on the

development of software and

services or IT projects under

contract for other firms -- is

projected to employ nearly

two out of every five core IT

workers (39.3 %) in 2006.

■ IT labor markets are complex and dynamic. Supply

and demand characteristics

vary by industry segment, by IT

occupation, and by specific skills.

Secretary Daley Releases 

New Report on the IT Work Force

News from the Office of Technology Policy ■ August 1999

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PACESETTER

continued on page 2 continued on page 3

Kelly Carnes Speaks at

Silicon Valley E-Business

Conference and Expo

■ Secretary William M. Daley releases “The

Digital Work Force” report at the National

Press Club in Washington, DC.

On June 30, 1999, Commerce

Secretary William M. Daley released

a new Office of Technology Policy

(OTP) report which finds that the

demand for highly skilled information technology (IT) workers is

strong and growing.

“We absolutely must have a welltrained, highly-skilled work force if

America is to compete in the global

economy in the years to come,” said

Daley. “America’s continued leadership will depend on how quickly we

can assemble an army of homegrown technology workers.”

The report, “The Digital Work Force:

Building Infotech Skills at the Speed

of Innovation,” captures the results of

Commerce’s town meetings around

the country, describes the demand

and supply trends for core IT occupations, discusses the business environment and its impact on the IT

On June 8 business, government

and industry leaders converged on

San Jose, California to participate

in a three day technology fair and

conversation on a wide range of Ebusiness issues. Sponsored in part

by Business Week, Information Week

and industry giants such as,

Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, and

ORACLE, Silicon Valley hosted

several hundred participants interested in the growth of business on

the Internet.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Kelly

Carnes spoke on a panel entitled,

“The Government and Electronic

Business: Promoter, Spoiler or NoShow?” How the government will

promote, tax and regulate the

Internet continues to be a hotly

debated topic.

■ E-business panelists discuss their presentations:

From left to right: Jeff Richards, Executive Director,

the Internet Alliance; Dan Kostenbauder, General

Tax Counsel, Hewlett-Packard; Gregory Dalton,

Associate Editor, Information Week ; Kelly Carnes,

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy,

Department of Commerce.
and contract training providers to

ensure they are aligned with employer needs, growing career areas, and

job markets in which they operate.

■ Businesses should form consortia

or collaborate in other ways to

reduce the cost and risk of training.

Businesses - acting alone or in partnership with education, government

and other stakeholders - should

assess IT training needs, develop curricula, train current or prospective

employees, and develop ways to help

employees get experience in applying

the technical skills they acquire

through training.

■ Businesses should tap into nontraditional labor pools, including

older workers, mid-career scientists

and engineers, recent college graduates trained in non-IT disciplines,

and women and minorities.

■ Private sector, universities and

community colleges should partner

together to improve curricula quality,

timeliness and value, and develop

programs that meet employers’ changing IT education and training needs.

■ Universities and community colleges should find much faster ways

to upgrade curricula through regular

surveys of skills needs, ongoing dialogue with IT business leaders and

technical professionals and more

monitoring of the business environment and technological trends.

■ Universities and community colleges should develop partnerships

between science and technology

departments, and business schools to

provide business majors and MBAs

with technical skills, and offer people

graduating in non-IT fields some

courses in IT.

Copies of the report are available for

download from:

http://www.ta.doc.gov/reports

or can be requested by calling:

(202) 482-3037. ■

2

PACESETTER ■ Office of Technology Policy August 1999

their education from four-year colleges. Other paths include two-year

degree-granting community colleges,

special university/community college

one-year programs designed to

upgrade the skills of current IT

workers, private sector certification

programs, in-house company training, computer user groups, Internet

forums, and company-sponsored

help sites. Two-thirds of all workers

in core IT occupations hold a bachelor’s-level degree or higher; 26 percent have less than a four-year

degree; and six percent have a high

school diploma or less. Of those with

degrees, 46 percent have IT degrees,

minors or second majors; 86 percent

have a degree in a science or engineering discipline.

Key Recommendations

The resounding conclusion from

our nationwide dialogue is that

there is no “silver bullet” solution to

the IT work force challenge. Rather,

the answer lies in many stakeholders undertaking a wide range of initiatives, both large and small. Most

of the suggestions for key stakeholders presented in this report provide actions well within the reach of

individual stakeholders in the business, government and education

communities.

Some of the recommendations outlined in the report are:

■ Government and the private sector should work together to support

and develop national information

and advertising campaigns to

improve the image of the technical

professions and communicate the

portfolio of skills needed to thrive in

the new economy.

■ Governments should consider

incentives to increase the number of

qualified science and technology

teachers in the K-12 grades.

■ Governments should review government supported training programs

Short product life cycles, and the

variety of software and hardware

products and their applications,

together with the differing business

requirements of different industry

sectors, have created demand for

workers with various combinations

of IT skills, experience, and industry

knowledge -- expressed often by

employers as needing “the right person with the right skills at the right

time.” Time-sensitive competitive

pressures and the need for employees with various combinations of

technical skills, business skills, and

hands-on experience have led many

employers, especially those for

whom IT is their core business, to

pursue “buy” decisions in this labor

market rather than “make” decisions

(to hire, then train for the task).

■ There is no single path to prepare

a worker for a core IT job. Most get

New IT Work Force Report from page 1

DIGITAL

WORK FORCE

■ Commerce

Secretary Daley and

Education Secretary

Richard Riley share a

laugh during Acting

Under Secretary of

Technology Bachula’s

remarks.
3

August 1999 PACESETTER ■ Office of Technology Policy

E-BUSINESS

Speaking for the Administration,

here is an excerpt of Carnes’ presentation:

“E-Commerce is the new gold

rush. It’s exciting—almost magical—how E-Commerce is changing

everything around us. More importantly, the economic transformation

being wrought by E-commerce

gives us a fresh chance to do things

right in terms of public policy, education and training, and so many

other things that can affect the

quality of our daily lives.

E-Commerce is a priority of

Secretary Daley. It is a high priority

of President Clinton and Vice

President Gore. We know we cannot do our job without staying in

close touch with your needs and

concerns. If you have any messages

for Washington, now’s your chance

to provide them. Let’s talk about

some underlying principles which

guide the Clinton Administration’s

approach to E-commerce.

‘Promoter, Spoiler or No Show?’ is

an apt title. Right up front, I want

to confess to you that the

Administration is responsible, as

the title of our presentation suggests, for two of the three things

suggested by our panel’s title.

In the first place, we

are certainly

ardent promoters of Ecommerce.

Virtually

every federal

agency is

active in appropriate area of Ecommerce, because we recognize

the incredible potential of the digital economy for improving the government’s service delivery.

Second, we are just as proud to be

a ‘non-player’ where and when

there seems to be little or no need

for government intrusion into the

marketplace. This role is all the

more important given the recent

experience of other nations, where

governments have tried to dictate

‘appropriate technologies’ or even

control access to the Web, and then

wondering why their infant E-commerce industries are languishing.

Finally, some of you may think that

government is in fact a ‘spoiler,’ and

that is especially important to discuss

with you and our panelists. When it

comes to E-commerce, hopefully we

have learned to listen, lead where

there is a clear role—AND to follow—AND to get out of the way.

President Clinton issued our central policy directive on E-commerce, ‘A Framework for Global

Electronic Commerce,’ on July 1,

1997. The President identified the

following policy principles:

1 the private sector should lead;

2 government should avoid

undue restrictions on electronic

commerce;

3 where governmental involvement is needed, its aim should be to

support and enforce a predictable,

minimalist, consistent and simple

legal environment for commerce;

4 governments should recognize

the unique qualities of the Internet;

5 electronic commerce over the

Internet should be facilitated on a

global basis

Carnes discussed barriers to Ecommerce growth and challenges

for the future that include taxation,

digital signatures, copyright protection, privacy, encryption, domain

name management, and market

access and concluded by saying the

Administration recognizes that it is

the private sector which is largely

responsible for the commercialization of the Internet. We are committed to minimizing untimely,

inconsistent, and ill-conceived regulation of this precious asset. We

are also committed to maintaining

our responsibilities in other areas

of E-commerce. The digital economy and E-commerce in particular

are now reaching a critical mass

thanks to good old American ingenuity and entrepreneurship and

the minimalist yet supportive

approach of the government.

We cannot kill the goose that lays

the golden egg for short-sighted revenue goals, or out of a desire to

somehow control a process which

already transcends local, state, federal and international boundaries.

Moreover, we know that worldwide

there are potentially thousands of

government entities which would

love to cook that goose as well. And

we cannot allow that to happen.

I urge you to join with us in finding

mutually advantageous solutions to

E-commerce policy issues. We welcome your involvement and input.” ■

E-Business Conference from page 1

At the press conference for the “The Digital Work

Force,” Secretary Daley also announced a new partnership between the Office of Technology

Policy (OTP) and Women in Film, a

non-profit organization with members

from the entertainment industry located in Hollywood, Calif., to do a public

service campaign in 2000. The goal

of the campaign is to dispel the

negative “geek” or “nerd” stereotype

of technical workers and encourage teens to pursue careers in science and technology.

The campaign will include two

public service announcements

(PSAs), a poster, and other informational materials which will reach at

least a million teenagers in 2000. ■

OTP Partners with Hollywood to

Challenge “Geek” Stereotype
United States Department of Commerce

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Office of Technology Policy

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The PACESETTER is a publication of the Office of Technology Policy, a division of the United States Department of Commerce Technology Administration.

Any mention of organizations, companies or products is for informational

purposes only; it does not imply any recommendation or endorsement.

■ Technology Administration 

Gary R. Bachula, Acting Under Secretary for Technology

■ Office of Technology Policy

Kelly H. Carnes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy

■ Editors

Cheryl Mendonsa, Director, Public Affairs

Kathleen Sullivan, Public Affairs

■ Comments and Inquiries

Cheryl Mendonsa, OTP Public Affairs

Telephone 202.482.8321

■ World Wide Web Addresses

http://www.ta.doc.gov

http://www.ta.doc.gov/otp

http://www.go4it.gov

■ Design and Layout

Alpha MicroDesigns, Inc.

■ Cover, top left photo: Detail from the building that houses

The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, a

hands-on, state-of-the-art museum dedicated to American

innovation.

Something to Talk About!

In the Next PACESETTER

■ OTP will chair the American delegation

to the 17th Meeting of the Aisa-Pacific

Economic Council (APEC) Industrial

Science and Technology Working Group

in Seattle, Washington in August. 

■ OTP will be issuing a series of reports on

international issues including an update of

our 1997 report, “Globalizing Industrial

Research and Development.”

Nominations for the 2000 National Medal of

Technology are being accepted from now until

December 1, 1999. The Medal is the nation’s

highest honor for technological innovation and

is awarded annually by the President of the

United States. Nominations are accepted for

individuals, teams, companies, or organizations.

Phone: (202) 482-5572

Email: NMT@mail.ta.doc.gov