FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Users wanting to call home form abroad are
increasingly turning to Skype's Internet telephony service to the
detriment of international carriers, new data showed.
Tech salaries
nearly flat, frustration rises
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. technology professionals are more frustrated with
their pay than they have been in years as their salaries stagnate, according to
an annual survey of about 17,000 visitors to the Dice.com website.
Dice Holdings Inc's (DHX.N) Dice.com, a career site for technology and
engineering professionals, found the average pay for U.S. tech jobs rose 1
percent last year to $78,845, compared to a 4.6 percent pay increase the year
before.
That modest pay increase is fueling dissatisfaction. Only 46 percent said they
are satisfied with the pay, compared to at least 53 percent who said so in each
of the previous three years. About half the workers say employers are doing
nothing to keep them motivated, according to the survey, and more than
three-quarters say they received no bonus in 2009.
The results suggest employers may have trouble keeping technology staff, leading
to a "retentionless recovery," said Tom Silver, Dice's senior vice president in
North America.
"The new war for technology talent is coming and the battle is retention," he
said.
While 47 percent of those surveyed said employers were doing nothing to motivate
them, a smaller number said they were getting more interesting assignments and
14 percent reported getting flexible work hours.
The survey also showed about 70 percent of respondents identified themselves as
Caucasian, and about 7 percent each said they were either African American or
Asian Indian. The average salary among those who identified themselves as Asian
Indian was about $86,000 a year, the highest of any ethnic group.
Workers in California's Silicon Valley do a little better than their peers
elsewhere in the United States. The average tech salary there was $96,299. In
Washington DC, where salaries are rising faster than the national average,
information technology (IT) professionals earned more than $89,000 a year.
Technology job titles that command six-figure salaries include project managers,
information architecture specialists, and advanced business application
programmers. IT managers earn about $115,000 a year, Dice said.
Meanwhile, more tech workers are working as independent consultants rather than
taking staff positions, according to Dice. About 48 percent of the positions
posted on the site are contractor jobs, up 8 percentage points from January
2009.
On average, technology consultants earn about $99,000 annually.
Black Inventors/Innovators in Science
Granville T. Woods
Electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, inventor. Born in Columbus,
Ohio, he mastered the trades of machinist and blacksmith, and after
working as a railroad fireman and engineer, Woods took college courses in
electrical and rnechanical engineering from 1876 to 1878. He served as
engineer on the British steamer Ironsides in 1878, and later settled in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
His first
patent was for a steam boiler furnace in 1884. He patented a telephone
transmitter in 1885, which was bought by Bell Telephone, and Woods then
founded the Woods Electric Company in New York City, which manufactured
and sold telephone, telegraph, and electrical Instruments.
His most
important invention was the induction telegraph system in 1887, a method
of informing an engineer of trains immediately in front of and behind him,
thus ensuring safer rail travel. Woods was challenged in court by the
Edison and Phelps companies, who claimed priority for Thomas Edison.
However, Woods eventually won the patent rights. Of the more than 60
patents that he registered, the majority were concerned with railroad
telegraphs, electrical brakes, and electrical railway systems. Some
referring to him as "The Black Edison" for his prolific inventive skills,
he was widely known for his ingenious contributions.
Some of
his better known contributions were in developing the "third rail" concept
in mass-transit subway systems and developing the "trolley" system for
trolley cars.
Darnell
Smith
Darnell Smith is the founder and CEO of Business In The Black, a
CMS web development and technology company founded in 1999 that
specializes in customized database driven Content Management
System websites and managing multimedia data over the Internet. He
is also the inventor of many software and hardware systems with
over 11 shared patents with companies such as Black & Decker US,
Bell Labs, Tyco Electronics, Lucent Technologies and Synqore
Electronics to name a few.
[View Profile]
JC Lamkin
J. C.
Lamkin, Certified Novell Administrator and Certified Project
Manager, is President of Gypsy Lane Technologies, Inc. and
Technically Speaking Radio in Philadelphia, Pa. Her work includes
technology and project management solutions for small businesses
and organizations.
[View Profile]
Dr. Peter J.
Delfyett
Dr.
Peter J. Delfyett is the President of the National Society of
Black Physicists. NSBP is 600-member professional association that
promotes the professional well-being of African American
physicists and physics students within the international
scientific community and within society at large.
[View Profile]
Debra Dixon
Debra Dixon is the principal and founder of Light of Gold PR and
Marketing. She has over 16 years of Technology and PR experience,
having worked as a consultant, trainer, public speaker, publicist,
promoter, marketer, writer, and media relations executive at
various corporations and companies in both Atlanta and New York.
[View Profile]
Jimmy J. Davies
Jimmy Davies is the founder and CEO of MacMasters Computer
Services, a computer training and technology company founded in
1988 that specializes in customized database development and
managing data over the Internet.
[View Profile]
Warren Holyfield
Warren Holyfield is the founder and CEO of A-Advantage Networking,
an information technology firm based in Long Beach, CA. He has his
FCC license in broadcasting communications amongst other
certifications, and is known in the industry for his knowledge in
communication arts.
[View Profile]
Dr. Jomo W. Mutegi
Jomo W. Mutegi, Ph.D. is Executive Director of Sankoré Institute.
Sankoré Institute is a non-profit African-centered science and
education research organization, which supports a staff of African
Americans who conduct research in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM).
[View Profile]
Diane Griffin
Diane began her career in Security Administration at military
contractor Northrup Grumman. Taking up this position came as
almost an afterthought as Diane was assigned from the Human
Resources area to Security Administration simply to maximize her
time; however, she quickly recognized an aptitude and inclination
for the field and pursued it vigorously from that time forward.
[View Profile]
David Steward
World Wide Technology CEO and prominent businessman David Lloyd
Steward was born on July 2, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois. His
parents, Navy veteran, Harold Lloyd Steward and Dorothy Elizabeth
Massingale Steward moved back to his mother's hometown, Clinton,
Missouri two months after Steward's birth.
[View Profile]
Gregory D. Evans
Gregory D. Evans, innovator, publisher, and industry leader, is a
recognized expert in computer security and hi-tech crimes. Mr.
Evans is the founder of LIGATT Security and the Technology Crimes
Institute (TCI). Through TCI, Mr. Evans currently teaches over
twelve hi-tech crime courses.
[View Profile]
Ga. Tech Top Producer of Black
Engineers
Megan McRainey, Institute
Communications & Public Affairs
ATLANTA — The Georgia Institute of Technology is the top overall producer of
African-American engineers in the United States, according to Diverse: Issues in
Higher Education magazine’s annual college rankings report.
For the 2005-2006 academic year, Georgia Tech was ranked No. 1 in undergraduate
degrees in engineering awarded to African-American students with 120 degrees, up
from 117 during the 2004-2005 academic year.
Other top five degree producers at the undergraduate level include North
Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University at Raleigh,
Southern University and A&M College and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
University.
“These rankings represent Georgia Tech’s continued efforts to attract and
graduate top minority students in engineering,” said President G. Wayne Clough.
“Given the growing need in our state and around the nation for talented
citizens, we are proud of Tech’s role as a national leader in creating and
maintaining a supportive educational environment for minority students.”
Georgia Tech was also the No. 1 producer of African-American doctoral graduates
in engineering with 11 graduates, up from 4 the previous academic year.
Other top five producers of African-American doctoral engineering graduates
include Morgan State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
University of Florida and North Carolina A&T State University.
Georgia Tech was No. 2 in engineering master’s degrees awarded to
African-American students with 28 degrees, down slightly from 29 during the
previous academic year when Tech held the top spot.
The top spot for master’s degrees awarded to African-American engineering
students is now held by North Carolina A&T State University, a historically
black university. Other top five producers include Southern Methodist
University, University of Florida and University of Michigan.
Considered by Georgia Tech to be an important tool to measure the success of
campus diversity initiatives, the rankings underscore Tech’s efforts to create a
diverse campus through strong recruitment and retention practices.
“These rankings are a truly meaningful measurement of Georgia Tech’s continued
efforts to create an educational environment where minority students can
thrive,” said Dr. Gary May, chair of the School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering and founder and director of Facilitating Academic Careers in
Engineering and Science (FACES), a program designed to encourage minority
engagement in engineering and science careers. “Georgia Tech’s performance over
the past decade in producing African-American engineers at all degree levels has
been phenomenal.”
One of Tech’s most successful minority recruitment projects is FOCUS, an annual
event designed to attract the country’s finest minority undergraduates to its
graduate programs. Each year, African-American students from more than 80
colleges and universities across the nation attend the three-day series of
lectures, tours, panel discussions and social events. The event, which is held
annually during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, is now in its 16th year.
In addition, Georgia Tech has a solid relationship with the historically black
institutions in the Atlanta area that make up the Atlanta University Center,
which include Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College,
Spelman College, Morehouse School of Medicine and the Interdenominational
Theological Center.
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, a publication that covers minorities in
American higher education, used statistics collected by the U.S. Department of
Education to compile the rankings edition. The special report identifies the top
100 minority degree producers among institutions of higher education and is the
only national report of U.S. colleges and universities awarding degrees to
African-American, Latino, Asian-American and Native-American students.
The report was released as a two-part series spotlighting undergraduate and
graduate statistics. Graduate and professional degree statistics appear in the
July 12 edition of Diverse. Undergraduate statistics were released in the
magazine’s June 1 edition.
