Top 10 IT Labor Issues for 2011

As Labor Day approaches, thoughts generally turn toward picnics, the beach or simply hanging around the house for a few days. But the reason we have the day off in the first place is to acknowledge the plight of the working man or woman.

While most IT professionals are not inclined to form or join a union, they too have their grievances. In fact, many of them wonder why various IT associations don’t do more to address these issues. As most of us get ready to take a little well-deserved rest this weekend, here is a list of the top 10 challenges facing IT workers today.

Click through for the top 10 challenges facing IT workers today.

While there’s a lot to legitimately complain about, with 400,000 IT jobs open in the U.S., it’s hard for this issue to gain any traction in Washington given all the other issues the country faces.

The IT environment today is a lot more complex than it used to be, which makes it harder than ever to know everything required.

In response to the complexity issue, IT organizations want to rely more on automation, but that’s a double-edge sword because it can threaten IT jobs.

As the data center evolves, server, storage and network management are starting to converge, which will change a lot of job functions within the IT organization.

With each passing day there is another new regulation that affects IT. That means that IT people are held accountable for compliance without necessarily having the authority to enforce those rules.

While there are a lot of IT jobs open, the state of the overall economy makes it hard to get a decent raise.

The Internet makes it a lot easier to deliver IT service from half way around the world. If it’s any consolation, even in India they are starting to complain about jobs being outsourced to other countries.

They don’t really reflect actual IT experience, but without them you usually can’t get past the HR department.

In a down economy, there’s less access to training, which puts the cost burden of staying current on the IT professionals.

The best IT jobs require new skillsets. But because of a lack of training, those skills are in short supply.