LOS ANGELES, May 17 (Xinhuanet) -- IT workers in the United States
are voluntarily leaving their jobs at a high rate, a report
released this week said, even though IT unemployment is high.
   According to IT research firm Meta Group, which surveyed more
than 600 medium-sized to large U.S. companies, the average
turnover is at 10 percent and concerns about retaining valuable
employees are quite high. Meta Group clarifies that higher than 10
percent turnover generally indicates an organization with
fundamental issues that affect productivity and morale.
   IT turnover is particularly high in transportation and
distribution, media/publishing, and health care. As a result of
high turnover, companies are using retention bonuses more often.
The causes cited most commonly were economic conditions,
organizational restructuring and available skills.
   "The data clearly indicates that those who don't aggressively
court and develop IT staff through the downturn and into the long
term will find themselves in crisis mode," Meta Group said.
   U.S. market research firm Gartner Dataquest also indicated
recently that IT services companies need to prepare for a long-
term future. The company predicted that the worldwide IT service
industry is on track to reach 557 billion U.S. dollars in 2002, up
2.8 percent from 2001, and revenue is projected to grow 7 percent
in 2003 to 597 billion dollars, increasing to 644 billion dollars
in 2004. By 2005, IT services worldwide will total 696 billion
dollars.  Enditem