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Laid-off IT professionals get political

Survey highlights concerns of tech jobless; aim is to spur
job creation in state

By Diane E. Lewis, Globe Staff, 1/19/03

Globe Staff Photo/John Bohn Tony Badman, a former EMC worker and cofounder of the 495 Networking Support Group, and his wife Jane lost their jobs in 2001.

When former EMC employees Tony Badman and Adam Winter started the 495 Networking Support Group for unemployed high-tech workers 18 months ago, just a few people came to the first gatherings in Westborough. But what began as a way to get back into the job market has grown into a group of more than 650 members that is no longer content to simply hold meetings.

Faced with a weak economy and little IT hiring, the organization is employing an unusual tactic for a networking group: it's using an online survey to get answers about layoffs and to help spur discussion about job creation in the state's technology sector.

The group's goal is to engage politicians in a dialogue about the future of the Massachusetts economy and the dwindling job prospects of its thousands of technology workers. The group says it wants state officials to understand how poorly the unemployed in the tech sector are faring. And it says it will lobby local legislators for retraining and job creation funds.

The survey went online Jan. 13 and will remain at www.495nsglist.com until Jan. 31. As of Thursday, 1,000 people had logged on.

The 495 Networking Support Group, known as the 495NSG, mailed letters to 70 state and federal legislators Friday, inviting them to a Feb. 6 breakfast at Congregation B'nai Shalom in Westborough, where survey results will be announced. The invitation list includes US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, both Democrats, and Republican Governor Mitt Romney.

Badman, 57, said the survey was sparked in part by the fact that many group members have applied for 50 jobs or more in the last three months and have gotten few, if any, interviews. ''For the first time, the survey results will provide accurate and comprehensive statistics,'' he said. ''That should enable us to increase awareness of the issue. It will also help us to leverage some proactive solutions.''

The survey asks respondents about their education level, last position held, salary, age, and length of unemployment, among other things. Asks one question: ''Have you had to borrow or utilize savings to survive?''

How much of an impact the 495NSG's efforts will have in a state with a budget deficit and a depressed economy remains to be seen. Massachusetts administration and finance Secretary Eric Kriss has called the current picture bleak, noting that the state's budget deficit could be larger than $2 billion for 2003.

State Senator Pamela Resor, a Worcester Democrat, said she understands the 495NSG's concerns and will attend its event. ''I am hearing from a lot of people in my district who have lost jobs in the high-tech and telecommunications industries,'' said Resor. ''Unfortunately, those jobs are difficult to find because so many [technology] firms are laying off.''

Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the jobless rate for computer scientists jumped from 3.4 percent to 5 percent between 2001 and 2002. During the same period, the unemployment rate for electrical and electronics engineers increased from 2 to 4.2 percent.

Locally, industry specialists are hoping an uptick in corporate spending will jolt the economy and help to increase hiring. Said Joyce Plotkin, president of the Massachusetts Software & Internet Council, ''Executives have indicated that there are signs here and there, though not enough to be a trend, that there is more activity in the technology world right now. So, there is more optimism.''

Still, the level of hiring activity in the tech sector isn't expected to quickly return to the levels reported just a few years ago. When CIO magazine polled information technology executives about hiring in January 2001, 55 percent said IT labor was hard to find. By December 2002, only 6.6 percent said they were having difficulty recruiting IT employees, noted Gary Beach, publisher of the Framingham magazine. He said that when a rebound does occur, it may take six months before cautious CIOs begin to aggressively hire additional IT staff.

Even so, 495NSG members are hoping stepped up political activity will lead to changes soon.

''I think the survey is an excellent start,'' said member Ken Chasin, 58, of Framingham, an unemployed information systems specialist. ''What we will have to do is show how long-term unemployment has affected members of the support group and their immediate families. I'm hoping we will see new policies that create meaningful jobs.''

Badman said the decision to develop the survey stemmed from the growing unease of jobless white-collar professionals for whom prolonged joblessness is a new experience. Take Scott Sherman, 44, of Bellingham. He holds a bachelor's degree in business management and a master's of science degree in management information systems. Until Genuity, a telecommunications firm, laid him off in October 2000, he managed 125 people and was gearing up for phase one of a project that came with a $40 million budget. Then, the hammer fell. He looked for contracting work for more than a year, said Sherman, who exhausted his jobless benefits.

With a wife and three children to support, Sherman took a job as a lead book seller for Barnes & Noble in July 2001 that he said paid one-fifth of his prior earnings. When his wife found work as a teacher's assistant in September, Sherman left book selling to care for the children. He also started a home-based business called Mailing Solutions, which offers discounted mailing services to companies that ship 200 pieces of mail or more.

Sherman, who has been running the business for six months, says he is no longer looking for tech work. Meanwhile, he and his wife have reduced expenses. ''I did all the right things,'' said a puzzled Sherman. ''I did well in high school, went to college and graduate school, got married and supported my family. . .Yet nothing in my life has prepared me for the place that I am at right now.''

Tony Badman had worked at EMC for two years as an IT project manager in the customer service division and had nearly two decades in the high-tech industry. He lost his job in 2001. So did his wife, Jane, a technology writer. The couple sold their home in Sudbury and moved to a more modest house in Marlborough. Today, Jane Badman is a reading tutor in the Sudbury schools. In November, Tony Badman was hired by the US Postal Service to deliver mail. He earns one-sixth the salary he'd made at EMC. But he didn't dwell on that when he collected his first postal service check on Dec. 6. ''The fact that I'd actually gone out and earned some money, meant a lot,'' he said.

Despite an aggressive job search, Badman has had only two interviews in his industry since the layoff.

He's not concentrating on that, however. Instead, he's counting on the 495NSG's efforts to open doors for himself and others in his group.

''We have a tremendous amount of talent that is laying dormant,'' said Badman. ''That is a problem we must fix.''

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.

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