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By Ed Frauenheim, 16 August 2004 08:30

NEWS Information technology workers in the US are lifting their chins.

At least that's the conclusion of a recent study by staffing company Hudson, which found that IT workers had greater confidence in the employment market last month than they did in June. In addition, IT workers' optimism remained higher than that of US workers overall, according to the study.

The Hudson 'employment index' for IT workers rose to 112.1 in July, up 4 points from June and 11 points from May. Hudson's national index for July hit 108.4, up from 107.9 in June.

The study, released earlier this month, involves surveying about 9,000 US workers in industries including IT, health care and manufacturing.

The report isn't the only sign of better times for IT workers, who have weathered the dot-com collapse and faced job losses related to so-called offshoring. According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate for computer-related occupations - which includes computer programmers and computer system analysts and scientists - dropped to 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of this year from 5.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2003.

On the other hand, the unemployment rate for that category was far lower in the 1990s and stayed below 2 per cent from 1994 to 2000.

Another study earlier this year found low morale among IT workers to be widespread. Among more than 650 companies surveyed by research firm Meta Group, more than 72 per cent indicated that low IT employee morale is currently a serious issue in their organisations.

Although Hudson's new study found IT workers generally more confident in the employment market than workers overall, the survey found IT workers to be less happy with their jobs. When asked: "Generally speaking, are you happy with your current job?" 70 per cent of workers overall said yes compared with 67.7 per cent of IT workers.

And those in the tech field seem more nervous about getting axed. Asked: "Are you worried about losing your job anytime soon," 26.1 per cent of IT workers said yes compared with 18.4 per cent of workers overall.

Ed Frauenheim writes for CNET News.com.