The war in Iraq, keeping the Internet free from regulation, and minimizing governments role in protecting privacy on the Internet, among other matters, dominate the political concerns of the American IT worker. So says the first scientific survey of the American IT workforce for the 2008 Presidential election cycle, as commissioned by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), with a generous grant from DeVry University.
The report entitled IT Workers and the 2008 Elections was developed by the U.S. Public Policy team of CompTIA and compiled by Rasmussen Reports. Rasmussen polled 600 information technology workers during the last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September 2007. The margin of sampling error for a survey based on this number of interviews is approximately +/-4 percent, with a 95 percent level of confidence.
The survey paints a revealing demographic portrait of the American IT worker, an eagerly sought-after constituency for 08 Presidential and federal candidates. At the highest level, the survey shows:
- 77% of IT workers are male; 23% female
- 39% are politically independent; 35% Republican; 26% Democrat
- 90% were born in the U.S. or Canada
- 63% do not consider their work to be for an IT company per se
- 54% make over $75,000 per year
The survey was broken down into two main parts. The first section asked generally What are the top issues facing the next President. The results show the top five issues for U.S. IT workers as:
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29% |
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23% |
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19% |
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7% |
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6%
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The second part delved into policies of concern to the IT workforce. Here, the views of Americas IT workers were examined in five important policy areas: Free Trade, Internet Regulation, Internet Privacy, Intellectual Property Protection, and Support for Workforce Training. The following responses outline the surveys tech-related highlights.
As to whether free trade helps or hurts the economy, IT workers said:
-Age seems to correlate to support of free trade policy with, as an example, only 28% of those 18 29 years-old feeling free trade helps the U.S. economy, compared to 54 % for those IT workers between the ages of 30 39 who support such policies.
Asked whether the government should regulate the Internet as it does telephone and television:
- 82% said government should avoid regulating the Internet as it does telephone services
- 12% said the Internet should be regulated like telephone services
-Of those who favored regulation, older IT workers, Democrats and women appeared more inclined towards regulation, though on the whole no more than 25% of any of those groups supported such regulation.
Concerning who should be primarily responsible for protecting consumer privacy on the Internet, the survey revealed:
- 60% thought the individual themselves should be primarily responsible for protecting their own privacy
- 19% felt that the companies that provide Internet services should have the primary responsibility to protect Internet privacy
- 12% believed that the government should have the primary responsibility for protecting privacy on the Internet
-Where governments role was favored, women and African Americans generally held a more positive view with 24% of women versus 17% of men, and 24% of African Americans versus 10% of whites believing government should be primarily responsible for the protection of consumer privacy on the Internet.
On what the government should do about protecting intellectual property (IP), those surveyed noted:
- 39% believed government should do more to protect IP
- 25% said do less
- 25% preferred the status quo
-For individuals who thought government should do more to protect IP, somewhat surprisingly, education level seemed to negatively correlate with a more active government role, with 76% of IT workers who graduated only from high school supporting a more active government role, compared to 34% of those graduating from college supporting such a role.
Finally, as to support for workforce training policies, respondents said:
- 49% felt government should offer tax credits for IT workers to get training or certifications
- 44% thought government should not provide these credits
-Income levels played an important role in supporting training tax credits, with 74% of IT workers making between $20,000 - $40,000 per year agreeing with these policies, versus only 40% of those who made over $100,000 per year in support of such credits.
The use of IT has driven Americas prosperity and productivity growth for more than a decade, noted Roger Cochetti, Group Director of U.S. Public Policy for CompTIA. Consequently, the American IT worker has emerged as a unique and integral class of U.S. laborer. Politicians see their importance to our world leadership, as well as the overall well-being of the nation. They also see a potent political force that has, until now, largely remained un-tapped. This study reveals an important shift has occurred in the political landscape. From here on in, we trust those seeking elected office will aggressively compete for IT workers votes much in the same way as any fundamental voting group. America depends too greatly on the fruits of IT workers for politicians to do otherwise.
The entire survey may be found at: http://www.comptia.org/issues/docs/ITforweb.pdf.
About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the voice of the world's $3 trillion information technology industry. CompTIA membership extends into more than 100 countries and includes companies at the forefront of innovation; the channel partners and solution providers they rely on to bring their products to market; and the professionals responsible for maximizing the benefits organizations receive from their technology investments. For more information, please visit www.comptia.org.