As it seems inevitable that we are going to have a significantly down market at this point (previous prognostications over the sustainability of IT in recession or low growth economy are obviously right out the window), it seems like a good time to comment on the likely progression of IT in a down market. This is a topic for writers with more wisdom and better schooling in economics than I. My largest experience with difficult markets was the dot-com bust, which wasn't ever really much of a bust for competent IT staff, and this is clearly a whole new world of hurt for everyone, not just the tech industry.

CIO Magazine has an article focusing on the outcomes of the meltdown in the financial sector; it seems certain they are correct that the failure of so many large financial institutions (an IT-heavy industry) will put a lot of technical staff on the streets, skilled and unskilled alike.

The fact that the NASDAQ got hammered particularly hard during today's market plummet may also bode poorly for IT staff; techs from those companies which are hardest hit may also be pounding the streets soon competing for work.

IT hardly becomes irrelevant in hard times; in fact, well-executed IT can be one of the things which best help companies through rough spots. But the problem is that the budget for executing those useful IT projects may be going away, regardless of how useful they might have been. Getting IT done on the cheap might be the next new best skill to have... agile operations and development models may be increasingly relevant, even to the extent of being forced onto organizations which aren't adequately able to predict bugets in the coming months and potentially years of hard times.