Is IT job market in bay area in recession? (San Francisco: credit, home)

[writeme]

I am thinking of taking up a new job in IT in bay area. But i've been hearing a lot about recession these days, so not sure if its the right time to move to a new job now. What do you feel? Is it a wise thought? Any comments on recession and current IT job market in bay area?

[clongirl]

Well... from what I've heard from my husband (he works at a large high tech comp) is that most companies are on hiring freezes. Most positions at his company are going to internal candidates. Not really any layoffs or anything like that though.

I'd say if you have some really specialized knowledge or years of experience in your particular field of expertise you might find something and would be okay in the long term.

If you are just getting your foot in the door then you might want to wait until the economy picks up (I lived through the whole dot com bust in San Francisco/Silicon Valley and knew many people that got laid off over and over again within a relatively short time frame. ( Loads of new "stay at home dads" began coming to the local park every day!)

[hsw]

Suspect most well-informed people would agree US is in a recession and a credit crisis....

Given that context, would expect hiring in tech industry to be tighter than usual for at least several quarters as everyone assesses the economic outlook...

That said, strategically, no other place on planet has as many smart/wealthy engineers (and VCs) as does SiliconValley....would argue wealth creation tends to repeatedly occur around groups of smart, industrious guys....