Do You Have Perishable Skills?

Who has a better chance of finding a job after being out of work for, say, six months? A software programmer (particularly in the health field) or a construction worker?

If you said the programmer, you're wrong, according to some analysts. The reason is that the technology sector is changing so much that software programmers' skills become dated quickly, reports The San Francisco Chronicle:

The technology sector is known for such rapid change that those out of work for even a few months can find themselves with out-of-date skills. Construction skills are far less likely to grow stale.

And for health IT workers? It's even worse:

Industries with highly perishable skill sets include health care technology, telecommunications and finance, where regulations have changed dramatically in the past year.

The toughest, though, may be information technology. Companies in that sector have cut payrolls for 32 of the last 33 months, through June, for a cumulative loss of about 312,000 jobs, or about 10 percent.

In technology, "if you've been out of work for a year or two, you're probably somewhat outdated," says Shami Khorana, president of HCL America, the U.S. arm of New Delhi-based HCL Technologies, which employs about 5,000 workers in the United States. He plans to hire at least 600 people as the economy improves and anticipates retraining some candidates with obsolete skills.