WASHINGTON, DC–The war in Iraq, keeping the Internet free from regulation, and minimizing government’s 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).
The study was funded by a 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 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 percent of IT workers are male; 23 percent female
–39 percent are politically independent; 35 percent Republican; 26 percednt Democrat
–90 percent were born in the U.S. or Canada
–63 percent do not consider their work to be for an “IT company” per se
–54 percent 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:
The war in Iraq: 29 percent.
Terrorism: 23 percent
Economy: 19 percent
Environment: 6 percent.
The second part delved into policies of concern to the IT workforce. Here, the views of America’s 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 survey’s tech-related highlights.
As to whether free trade helps or hurts the economy, IT workers said:
–48 percent helps
–37 percent hurts
Asked whether the government should regulate the Internet as it does telephone and television:
–82 percent said government should avoid regulating the Internet as it does telephone services
–12 percent said the Internet should be regulated like telephone services
Concerning who should be primarily responsible for protecting consumer privacy on the Internet, the survey revealed:
–60 percent thought the individual themselves should be primarily responsible for protecting their own privacy
–19 percent felt that the companies that provide Internet services should have the primary responsibility to protect Internet privacy
–12 percent believed that the government should have the primary responsibility for protecting privacy on the Internet
On what the government should do about protecting intellectual property (IP), those surveyed noted:
–39 percent believed government should do more to protect IP
–25 percent said do less
–25 percent preferred the status quo
Finally, as to support for workforce training policies, respondents said:
–49 percent felt government should offer tax credits for IT workers to get training or certifications
–44 percent thought government should not provide these credits
“The use of IT has driven America’s 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.
“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 is available online at:
http://www.comptia.org/issues/docs/ITforweb.pdf.
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